Table_1_Alterations of the Gut Microbiota in Multiple System Atrophy Patients.XLSX

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, and the pathogenesis is still quite challenging. Emerging evidence has shown that the brain–gut–microbiota axis served a pivotal role in neurological diseases; however, researches utilizing metagenomic sequencing to analyze the alteration in gut microbiota of MSA patients were quite rare. Here, we carried out metagenomic sequencing in feces of 15 MSA patients and 15 healthy controls, to characterize the alterations in gut microbial composition and function of MSA patients in mainland China. The results showed that gut microbial community of MSA patients was significantly different from healthy controls, characterized by increased genus Akkermansia and species Roseburia hominis, Akkermansia muciniphila, Alistipes onderdonkii, Streptococcus parasanguinis, and Staphylococcus xylosus, while decreased genera Megamonas, Bifidobacterium, Blautia, and Aggregatibacter and species Bacteroides coprocola, Megamonas funiformis, Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum, Clostridium nexile, Bacteroides plebeius, and Granulicatella adiacens. Further, functional analysis based on the KEGG database revealed aberrant functional pathways in fecal microbiome of MSA patients. In conclusion, our findings provided evidence for dysbiosis in gut microbiota of Chinese MSA cohorts and helped develop new testable hypotheses on pathophysiology of MSA.

多系统萎缩（Multiple system atrophy, MSA）是一种致命性神经退行性疾病，其发病机制至今仍极具挑战。现有研究表明，脑-肠-微生物轴在神经系统疾病中发挥关键调控作用，但针对多系统萎缩患者肠道菌群（gut microbiota）变化开展宏基因组测序（metagenomic sequencing）分析的相关研究仍较为少见。本研究对15例多系统萎缩患者与15例健康对照的粪便样本进行宏基因组测序，以解析中国大陆地区多系统萎缩患者的肠道微生物组成与功能特征。结果显示，多系统萎缩患者的肠道微生物群落与健康对照存在显著差异：阿克曼菌属（Akkermansia）、人罗斯拜瑞氏菌（Roseburia hominis）、嗜黏蛋白阿克曼菌（Akkermansia muciniphila）、昂德唐氏阿里斯菌（Alistipes onderdonkii）、副血链球菌（Streptococcus parasanguinis）及木糖葡萄球菌（Staphylococcus xylosus）的丰度显著升高；而巨单胞菌属（Megamonas）、双歧杆菌属（Bifidobacterium）、布劳特氏菌属（Blautia）及聚集杆菌属（Aggregatibacter），以及粪拟杆菌（Bacteroides coprocola）、形巨单胞菌（Megamonas funiformis）、假小链双歧杆菌（Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum）、奈氏梭菌（Clostridium nexile）、普通拟杆菌（Bacteroides plebeius）与毗邻颗粒链菌（Granulicatella adiacens）的丰度显著降低。基于京都基因与基因组百科全书（Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, KEGG）数据库的功能分析进一步显示，多系统萎缩患者的粪便微生物组存在功能通路异常。综上，本研究结果为中国多系统萎缩队列的肠道菌群失调提供了证据，并为探索多系统萎缩的病理生理机制提供了新的可验证假说。