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Bacterial gut samples differed between autistic and non-autistic children
Williams BL. mBio. 2012;doi:10.1128/mBio.00261-11.
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Communities of microorganisms that reside in the gut of autistic children with gastrointestinal problems are different than communities residing in non-autistic children, according to study results published in the online journal mBio.
Following up on a previous study, which identified that Alcaligenaceae bacterium sequences in ileal and cecal biopsy samples from autistic children with gastrointestinal dysfunction were completely absent from biopsy samples of non-autistic children with gastrointestinal dysfunction, Brent Williams, PhD, and colleagues of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University subjected samples to real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis.
Researchers analyzed 23 biopsy samples from autistic children with nine biopsy samples from non-autistic children and observed that increased levels of Alcaligenaceae in autistic children resulted from the incidence of elevated levels of members of the genus Sutterella. Utilizing a Sutterella-specific PCR assay for detecting, quantitating and genotyping Sutterella species in the samples, the study found Sutterella 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences in 12 of 23 autistic children, yet none in the nine non-autistic children.
Further phylogenetic analysis identified a high proportion of either S. wadsworthensis or S. stercoricanis in 11 of the Sutterella-positive autistic patients, whereas the remaining patient could not be given a species-level classification based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences of known Sutterella isolates.
“The nature of intestinal damage in autism has not been fully defined,” the researchers said. “A defective epithelial barrier could lead to enhanced contact between many members of the microbiota and antigen-presenting cells in the lamina propria. If this turns out to be the case in autism, then antibodies against Sutterella proteins may reflect interindividual, compositional variation in the microbiota, rather than being an indication of Sutterella infection. Additional studies are warranted in order to draw definitive conclusions from this immunological analysis.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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