Differences in gut microbiome composition between persons with chronic schizophrenia and healthy comparison subjects

Abstract

Intestinal microbiome and gut-brain axis have been receiving increasing attention for their role in the regulation of brain/behavior and possible biological basis of psychiatric disorders. Several recent clinical studies have linked the microbiome with neuropsychiatric conditions, although the literature on schizophrenia is quite limited. This study investigated gut microbiome composition in 50 individuals, including 25 persons with chronic schizophrenia and 25 demographically-matched non-psychiatric comparison subjects (NCs). Stool samples were collected and assayed using 16S rRNA sequencing of the V4 region. Examination of unweighted UniFrac and Bray-Curtis dissimilarities revealed significant community-level separation in microbiome composition between the two subject groups. At the phylum level, Proteobacteria were found to be relatively decreased in schizophrenia subjects compared to NCs. At the genus level, Anaerococcus was relatively increased in schizophrenia while Haemophilus, Sutterella, and Clostridium were decreased. Within individuals with schizophrenia, abundance of Ruminococcaceae was correlated with lower severity of negative symptoms; Bacteroides were associated with worse depressive symptoms; and Coprococcus was related to greater risk for developing coronary heart disease. Our findings provide evidence of altered gut microbial composition in persons with chronic schizophrenia and suggest a need for larger and longitudinal studies of microbiome in schizophrenia.

Gut microbiota in reintroduction of giant panda

“…We discovered that the gut microbiota diversity of the wild‐training baby pandas (i.e., the released group) was noticeably different than that of members of the unreleased group. We detected several potentially beneficial bacteria that were more abundant in the released group based on Random Forest and AUC analysis, such as Roseburia (Tamanai‐Shacoori et al, ), Coprococcus (Riviere, Selak, Lantin, Leroy, & De Vuyst, ), Ruminococcus (Flint, Scott, Duncan, Louis, & Forano, ), Clostridium, Sutterella ( Nguyen et al, ), Dorea, and Epulopiscium . Interestingly, most of them are butyrate‐producing bacteria.…”

Investigating the Gut Microbiota Composition of Individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Association with Symptoms

“…The Ruminococcaceae family and the genera belonging to this family have shown altered relative abundance in individuals diagnosed with several psychiatric diseases, i.e. autism, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia as well as ADHD [41][42][43][44]. Even though there is a lack of knowledge about the functional role of Ruminoccocace_UCG_004 genus and its effect on the host, the Ruminococcaceae family is well described.…”

Beyond the looking glass: recent advances in understanding the impact of environmental exposures on neuropsychiatric disease

“…Studies suggest that changes in intestinal microbiota diversity and community may be associated with psychiatric disorders such as ASD, schizophrenia, and depression [166][167][168]. While these studies demonstrate a clear gut-brain interaction, they do not consider the additional complexity of external environmental factors.…”