Characteristics of Gut Microbiota in Patients with Erectile Dysfunction: A Chinese Pilot Study. human gut metagenome

Little is known about the role of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of erectile dysfunction (ED). Rare studies investigated the microbial composition of ED patients to date. We performed a study by 16S rRNA sequencing in a cohort of patients with ED (n=43) and healthy controls (n=16). Unweighted uniFrac analysis revealed a distinct beta diversity of gut microbiome in patients with ED (R2=0.026, P=0.036). Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfse) analysis showed Actinomyces was significantly enriched, whereas Coprococcus_1, Lachnospiraceae_FCS020_group, Lactococcus, Ruminiclostridium_5, and Ruminococcaceae_UCG_002 were depleted in patients with ED. Spearman correlation analysis between key genera and clinical data. Actinomyces showed a significant positive correlation with the results of the nocturnal penile tumescence and rigidity (NPTR) test, which suggest the higher Actinomyces, the worse erectile function. Coprococcus_1, Lachnospiraceae_FCS020_group, Ruminiclostridium_5, and Ruminococcaceae_UCG_002 were all significantly correlated with the 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) and NPTR results. Further, a random forest classifier based on the relative abundance of taxa showed good diagnostic efficacy with an AUC of 0.72. In summary, our data identified evident alterations in the gut microbiome composition of ED patients and found Actinomyces was negatively correlated with erectile function, which may be a key pathogenic bacteria. The gut microbes showed the potential role of discriminating patients with ED from healthy controls, which may function as a promising biomarker of ED.