Gut microbiome composition associated with prevalent, incident atrial fibrillation
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Key takeaways:
- Prevalent and prospective atrial fibrillation are associated with distinct gut microbial genera.
- Data could one day predict risk for AF based on gut microbiome composition.
Adults with prevalent and incident atrial fibrillation have a different gut microbiome composition compared with people without AF, researchers reported.
“The large ecosystem of the human gut microbiome has received increasing attention as a risk factor for arrhythmias,” Renate B. Schnabel, MD, MSc, deputy director, department of cardiology at University Heart and Vascular Center Hamburg in Germany, told Healio. “We can provide sound evidence that the gut microbiome, assessed from a stool sample, is related to the incidence of AF. Several species show differences in abundance in individuals at increased risk for AF. Some of them overlap with genera described in context with HF.”
Data were derived from Palmu J, et al. eBioMedicine. 2023;doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104583.
Schnabel and colleagues analyzed data from 6,763 adults who provided stool samples for microbiome analysis as part of the 2002 FINRISK study, assessing the associations of prevalent and incident AF with gut microbiota. Researchers replicated the findings in an independent case-control cohort of 138 participants with AF and limited risk factor burden compared with matched controls.
The findings were published in eBioMedicine.
In adjusted regression models, researchers found that prevalent AF (n = 116) was associated with nine microbial genera. Incident AF (n = 539) during a median follow-up of 15 years was associated with eight microbial genera (false discovery rate-corrected P < .05.) Prevalent and incident AF were associated with the genera Enorma and Bifidobacterium (false discovery rate-corrected P < .001).
AF was not significantly associated with bacterial diversity measures.
In Cox regression analyses, 75% of top genera (Enorma, Paraprevotella, Odoribacter, Collinsella, Barnesiella, Alistipes) showed a consistent direction of shifted abundance in the independent AF case-control replication cohort, according to the researchers.
“Gut microbiome assessment could become part of a comprehensive AF risk prediction, although the associations were rather weak,” Schnabel told Healio. “More important, the gut microbiome is modifiable by nutrition and lifestyle. If our findings are confirmed, lifelong dietary interventions could provide a preventive measure to reduce the risk of this common age-related disease.”
Schnabel said more research must elucidate whether the gut microbiome directly induces AF or whether microbiome-related mechanisms that lead to atrial/cardiac remodeling are indirectly associated with AF incidence.
For more information:
Renate B. Schnabel, MD, MSc, can be reached at r.schnabel@uke.de; Twitter: @h2020affecteu.
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