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

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder. Given the growing evidence of gut microbiota being involved in psychiatric (including neurodevelopmental) disorders, we aimed to identify differences in gut microbiota composition between participants with ADHD and controls and to investigate the role of the microbiota in inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Fecal samples were collected from 107 participants (NADHD=42; Ncontrols=50; NsubthreholdADHD=15; range age: 13-29 years). The relative quantification of bacterial taxa was done using 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing. Beta-diversity revealed significant differences in bacterial composition between participants with ADHD and healthy controls, which was also significant for inattention, but showing a trend in case of hyperactivity/impulsivity only. Ten genera showed nominal differences (P < 0.05) between both groups, of which seven genera were tested for their association with ADHD symptom scores (adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, time delay between feces collection and symptoms assessment, medication use and family relatedness). Our results show that variation of a genus from the Ruminococcaceae family (Ruminococcaceae_UCG_004) is associated (after multiple testing correction) with inattention symptoms, and suggest a role of gut microbiota in ADHD pathophysiology.

Gut metagenomics discriminates unique microbial signatures in diverse symptomatic profiles with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

“…The metagenomic data here may not directly compare with those results from 16S rRNA sequencing analysis [18][19][20][21][22]. Nevertheless, our findings demonstrated gut dysbiosis in patients with ADHD compared with HCs, which was consistent with previous studies.…”

“…Notably, the reported distinct bacterial taxa between ADHD patients and HCs were highly inconsistent in previous studies [18][19][20][21][22][23]. The disturbed bacterial taxa in one cohort may never be replicated or may be opposite in abundance in another cohort.…”

“…Studies based on 16S rRNA sequencing have preliminarily distinguished different gut microbiota between ADHD patients and healthy controls (HCs) from several small size cohorts [18][19][20][21][22]. However, no studies have been carried out to compare bacterial variation between patients with different ADHD symptomatic profiles and HCs.…”

GC-TOF-MS-Based Metabolomic Analysis and Evaluation of the Effects of HX106, a Nutraceutical, on ADHD-Like Symptoms in Prenatal Alcohol Exposed Mice

“…Recently, there are some efforts to control neurological disorders by applying the gut-brain axis theory, a bidirectional communication between the brain and gastrointestinal tract [ 50 , 51 ]. In cases of ADHD, there is evidence demonstrating that gut microbiota affects brain neurodevelopment [ 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]. For instance, Szopinska-Tokov et al suggested that inattentive behavior that appeared in ADHD patients is associated with a specific bacterium [ 53 ].…”

Multivariate associative patterns between the gut microbiota and large-scale brain network connectivity

“…Sequencing was performed on the Illumina HiSeq PE300 platform by GATC Biotech AG (Konstanz, Germany). The sequences were processed using NG-Tax (57) analysis pipeline as described previously (58). This resulted in an Operational Taxonomical Unit (OTU) table containing 844 OTUs.…”