Implications of oral streptococcal bacteriophages in autism spectrum disorder

Tong，Zhan1; Zhou，Xin2,3; Chu，Yanan1; Zhang，Tianxu2,4; Zhang，Jie5; Zhao，Xiaoyan5; Wang，Zuqun2,4; Ding，Rui2,4; Meng，Qingren6; Yu，Jun7; Wang，Juan2,4; Kang，Yu1

2022-12-01

10.1038/s41522-022-00355-3

npj Biofilms and Microbiomes   Impact Factor & Quartile

2055-5008

Growing evidence suggests altered oral and gut microbiota in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but little is known about the alterations and roles of phages, especially within the oral microbiota in ASD subjects. We enrolled ASD (n = 26) and neurotypical subjects (n = 26) with their oral hygiene controlled, and the metagenomes of both oral and fecal samples (n = 104) are shotgun-sequenced and compared. We observe extensive and diverse oral phageome comparable to that of the gut, and clear signals of mouth-to-gut phage strain transfer within individuals. However, the overall phageomes of the two sites are widely different and show even less similarity in the oral communities between ASD and control subjects. The ASD oral phageome exhibits significantly reduced abundance and alpha diversity, but the Streptococcal phages there are atypically enriched, often dominating the community. The over-representation of Streptococcal phages is accompanied by enriched oral Streptococcal virulence factors and Streptococcus bacteria, all exhibiting a positive correlation with the severity of ASD clinical manifestations. These changes are not observed in the parallel sampling of the gut flora, suggesting a previously unknown oral-specific association between the excessive Streptococcal phage enrichment and ASD pathogenesis. The findings provide new evidence for the independent microbiome-mouth-brain connection, deepen our understanding of how the growth dynamics of bacteriophages and oral microbiota contribute to ASD, and point to novel effective therapeutics.

SCI

English

Others

National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China[31671350];National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China[31970568];

Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology ; Microbiology

Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology ; Microbiology

WOS:000885298100001

NATURE PORTFOLIO

2-s2.0-85142260047

Scopus

1.Beijing Institute of Genomics,Chinese Academy of Sciences/China National Center for Bioinformation,Beijing,100101,China
2.Department of Biomedical Informatics,School of Basic Medical Sciences,Peking University,Beijing,100191,China
3.Department of stomatology,Peking University Third Hospital,Beijing,100191,China
4.Autism research center of Peking University Health Science Center,Beijing,100191,China
5.Department of child healthcare,Xi’an Children’s Hospital,Xi’an,710003,China
6.School of Medicine,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China
7.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,100190,China

Tong，Zhan,Zhou，Xin,Chu，Yanan,et al. Implications of oral streptococcal bacteriophages in autism spectrum disorder[J]. npj Biofilms and Microbiomes,2022,8(1).

Tong，Zhan.,Zhou，Xin.,Chu，Yanan.,Zhang，Tianxu.,Zhang，Jie.,...&Kang，Yu.(2022).Implications of oral streptococcal bacteriophages in autism spectrum disorder.npj Biofilms and Microbiomes,8(1).

Tong，Zhan,et al."Implications of oral streptococcal bacteriophages in autism spectrum disorder".npj Biofilms and Microbiomes 8.1(2022).