The gut microbiome in social anxiety disorder: evidence of altered composition and function

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Peace Sandy on 2023-12-28

study design

case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

36941248

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1038/s41398-023-02325-5

URI

Authors

Butler MI, Bastiaanssen TFS, Long-Smith C, Morkl S, Berding K, Ritz NL, Strain C, Patangia D, Patel S, Stanton C, O'Mahony SM, Cryan JF, Clarke G, Dinan TG

Journal

Translational psychiatry

Year

2023

The microbiome-gut-brain axis plays a role in anxiety, the stress response and social development, and is of growing interest in neuropsychiatric conditions. The gut microbiota shows compositional alterations in a variety of psychiatric disorders including depression, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia but studies investigating the gut microbiome in social anxiety disorder (SAD) are very limited. Using whole-genome shotgun analysis of 49 faecal samples (31 cases and 18 sex- and age-matched controls), we analysed compositional and functional differences in the gut microbiome of patients with SAD in comparison to healthy controls. Overall microbiota composition, as measured by beta-diversity, was found to be different between the SAD and control groups and several taxonomic differences were seen at a genus- and species-level. The relative abundance of the genera Anaeromassillibacillus and Gordonibacter were elevated in SAD, while Parasuterella was enriched in healthy controls. At a species-level, Anaeromassilibacillus sp An250 was found to be more abundant in SAD patients while Parasutterella excrementihominis was higher in controls. No differences were seen in alpha diversity. In relation to functional differences, the gut metabolic module 'aspartate degradation I' was elevated in SAD patients. In conclusion, the gut microbiome of patients with SAD differs in composition and function to that of healthy controls. Larger, longitudinal studies are warranted to validate these preliminary results and explore the clinical implications of these microbiome changes.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Peace Sandy on 2023-12-28

Curated date: 2023/11/16

Curator: Chinelsy

Revision editor(s): Chinelsy, Peace Sandy

Subjects

Location of subjects: Ireland

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Social anxiety disorder SAD,social anxiety,social anxiety disorder,social phobia,Social anxiety disorder

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Healthy controls

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 31

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 18

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): 4 weeks

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: WMS

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: Not specified

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: Mann-Whitney (Wilcoxon)

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: Yes

Matched on Factors on which subjects have been matched on in a case-control study: age, sex

Confounders controlled for Confounding factors that have been accounted for by stratification or model adjustment: age, body mass index, sex

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: unchanged

Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness: unchanged

Simpson Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species evenness: unchanged

Signature 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Peace Sandy on 2023-12-28

Curated date: 2023/11/16

Curator: Chinelsy

Revision editor(s): Chinelsy, Peace Sandy

Source: Fig 2, Text

Description: Genus and species level differences between SAD and healthy controls.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Anaeromassilibacillus
Anaeromassilibacillus sp. An250
Gordonibacter

Revision editor(s): Chinelsy, Peace Sandy

Signature 2

Edit History Delete

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Your review change was submitted

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Peace Sandy on 2023-12-28

Curated date: 2023/12/28

Curator: Peace Sandy

Revision editor(s): Peace Sandy

Source: Fig 2, Text

Description: Genus and species level differences between SAD and healthy controls.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Parasutterella
Parasutterella excrementihominis

Revision editor(s): Peace Sandy