Objective: Gut-brain axis has been associated with multiple brain disorders [1,2,3]. This study is to explore fecal microbiota changes in Huntington’s disease (HD).

Background: Huntington’s disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by a trinucleotide repeat expansion in the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Study using transgenic mouse model has shown that gut dysbiosis may regulate the occurrence and progression of HD symptoms [4], but the alterations in fecal microbiome in HD patients remains unknown.

Method: Feces were collected from 34 HD patients and 34 healthy controls (spouses or close relatives of HD patients) under the conditions, such as without taking antibiotics for more than one month prior to fecal donation for research. This study was approved by local ethical committeee. Microbiota communities in the feces were assessed using high-throughput Illumina HiSeq sequencing targeting the V3-V4 region of 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) gene.

Results: Fecal bacterial α-diversity was found increased in the HD patients based on the chao1, observed species, PD whole tree and goods coverage index. Significant differences were also found in β-diversity based on the unweighted (qualitative, ANOSIM R = 0.047, p = 0.027) but not the weighted (quantitative, ANOSIM R = 0.004, p = 0.317) UniFrac between HD and healthy groups. Genera Intestinimonas, Bilophila, Lactobacillus, Oscillibacter, Gemmiger and Dialister were enriched in the feces of HD patients, but Clostridium XVIII were enriched in the feces of healthy controls.

Conclusion: This study provides the first evidence of gut dysbiosis in Chinese HD patients. Elucidating these differences in the fecal microbiota will provide the basis for raising our understanding of the pathogenesis of HD and supporting potential treatment options to alter gut microbiota.

References: [1] Qian Y, et al. Alteration of the fecal microbiota in Chinese patients with Parkinson’s disease. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2018; 70: 194-202. [2] Zhuang ZQ, et al. Gut Microbiome is Altered in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease. Journal of Alzheimers Disease. 2018; 63: 1-10. [3] Tang AT, et al. Endothelial TLR4 and the microbiome drive cerebral cavernous malformations. Nature, 2017; 545: 305-310. [4] Kong G, et al. Microbiome profiling reveals gut dysbiosis in a transgenic mouse model of Huntington’s disease. Neurobiology of disease. 2018; 135: 104268.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/changes-in-fecal-microbiota-composition-in-patients-with-huntingtons-disease-in-china/