Comparative diet-gut microbiome analysis in Crohn's disease and Hidradenitis suppurativa

Peter Cronin; Siobhan McCarthy; Cian Hurley; Tarini Shankar Ghosh; Jakki C Cooney; Ann-Marie Tobin; Michelle Murphy; Eibhlís M O'Connor; Fergus Shanahan; Paul W O'Toole

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1289374

Comparative diet-gut microbiome analysis in Crohn's disease and Hidradenitis suppurativa

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 10:14:1289374. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1289374. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Peter Cronin^{1

2}, Siobhan McCarthy^{2

3}, Cian Hurley⁴, Tarini Shankar Ghosh^{2

5}, Jakki C Cooney¹, Ann-Marie Tobin⁶, Michelle Murphy^{3

7}, Eibhlís M O'Connor^{1

2

8}, Fergus Shanahan^{2

7}, Paul W O'Toole^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Science, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
² APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
³ Department of Dermatology, South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Cork, Ireland.
⁴ School of Microbiology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
⁵ Department of Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Delhi, India.
⁶ Department of Dermatology, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
⁷ School of Medicine, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
⁸ Health Research Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.

Abstract

Introduction: The chronic inflammatory skin disease Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is strongly associated with Crohn's Disease (CD). HS and CD share clinical similarities and similar inflammatory pathways are upregulated in both conditions. Increased prevalence of inflammatory disease in industrialised nations has been linked to the Western diet. However, gut microbiota composition and diet interaction have not been compared in HS and CD.

Methods: Here we compared the fecal microbiota (16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing) and habitual diet of previously reported subjects with HS (n = 55), patients with CD (n = 102) and controls (n = 95).

Results and discussion: Patients with HS consumed a Western diet similar to patients with CD. Meanwhile, habitual diet in HS and CD was significantly different to controls. Previously, we detected differences in microbiota composition among patients with HS from that of controls. We now show that 40% of patients with HS had a microbiota configuration similar to that of CD, characterised by the enrichment of pathogenic genera (Enterococcus, Veillonella and Escherichia_Shigella) and the depletion of putatively beneficial genera (Faecalibacterium). The remaining 60% of patients with HS harboured a normal microbiota similar to that of controls. Antibiotics, which are commonly used to treat HS, were identified as a co-varying with differences in microbiota composition. We examined the levels of several inflammatory markers highlighting that growth-arrest specific 6 (Gas6), which has anti-inflammatory potential, were significantly lower in the 40% of patients with HS who had a CD microbiota configuration. Levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-12, which is a modulator of intestinal inflammation in CD, were negatively correlated with the abundance of health-associated genera in patients with HS. In conclusion, the fecal microbiota may help identify patients with HS who are at greater risk for development of CD.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; Hidradenitis suppurativa; diet; gut microbiota; inflammation.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Work in PWOTs laboratory was supported by Science Foundation Ireland through a Centre award (APC/SFI/12/RC/2273_P2) to APC Microbiome Ireland, and by the Health Research Board of Ireland under Grant ILP-POR-2017-034. EO’C, PO’T, and PC were supported by the FIRM award scheme of the (Govt. Ireland; Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine) under grant code 17F251.