Metagenomic-based characterization of the gut virome in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome

Liansha Huang; Xiaoling Wu; Shumin Guo; Ying Lv; Peng Zhou; Guangrong Huang; Zuzhen Duan; Wen Sun

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.951782

Metagenomic-based characterization of the gut virome in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome

Front Microbiol. 2022 Aug 16:13:951782. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.951782. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Liansha Huang¹, Xiaoling Wu¹, Shumin Guo¹, Ying Lv¹, Peng Zhou², Guangrong Huang³, Zuzhen Duan³, Wen Sun^{4

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Affiliations

¹ Department of Reproductive Health, Shenzhen Bao'an Chinese Medicine Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China.
² Department of Acupuncture, Shenzhen Bao'an Chinese Medicine Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China.
³ Department of Gynecology, Shenzhen Bao'an Chinese Medicine Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Health Cultivation of the Ministry of Education, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
⁵ Beijing key Laboratory of Health Cultivation, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
⁶ School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex disease that afflicts women of reproductive age, and its pathological mechanism has not been well explained. The gut microbiota is believed to be closely related to the development of PCOS. Although an important component of the gut microbiome, the role of the gut virome in the development of PCOS is still unclear.

Methods: In this study, we profiled and compared the gut viral community of 50 patients with PCOS and 43 healthy women based on the analysis of their fecal whole-metagenome dataset.

Results: The gut virome of PCOS patients exhibited a significant decrease in within-sample viral diversity and a remarkable alteration of the overall virome composition compared with that of healthy controls. At the family level, Siphoviridae was significantly depleted in the gut virome of patients, while Quimbyviridae was enriched. We identified 1,089 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUs) that differed in relative abundance between the two groups, of which 455 vOTUs were enriched in PCOS patients (including numerous Bacteroidaceae phages) and 634 were enriched in controls (including numerous viruses predicted to infect Oscillospiraceae, Prevotellaceae, and Ruminococcaceae). Functional comparison of the PCOS-enriched and control-enriched vOTUs uncovered the viral functional signatures associated with PCOS. Furthermore, we demonstrated gut viral signatures for disease discrimination and achieved an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.938, demonstrating the potential of the gut virome in the prediction of PCOS.

Conclusion: Our findings reveal specific alterations in viral diversity and taxonomic and functional compositions of the gut virome of PCOS patients. Further studies on the etiology of PCOS and the gut viral community will offer new prospects for treating and preventing PCOS and its related diseases.

Keywords: gut bacteriome; gut virome; polycystic ovary syndrome; viral dysbiosis; whole-metagenome sequencing.