Atopic dermatitis (AD), an inflammatory skin disease, exhibits increased incidence with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children. However, the mechanism underlying the ASD-AD comorbidity remains unclear. Here, we integrated the metagenomic and metabolomics analysis to characterize the compositions and functional profiles of gut microbiome in ASD children with AD. We found significant alteration in the composition of the intestinal microbial species between ASD-AD group and ASD group based on beta diversity analysis. LEfSe analysis showed tyzzerellaₙexilis, eubacteriumₛpOM08₂4 and clostridiumₙexileCAG348 were significantly increased in ASD children with AD. In addition, metabolite profiles showed that differentially expressed metabolites were mainly lipids and organic acids. Meanwhile, functional profiles showed that the pathway of cholesterol metabolism and biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids was abundant in ASD children with AD. Furthermore, the correlation analysis revealed that bacteroidesₛpCAG443, limosilactobacillusₘucosae had a positive correlation with traumatic acid and ricinoleic acid that were decreased in ASD-AD group, respectively. Eubacteriumᵣamulus and lachnospiraceaebacterium were positively correlated with 11, 14-eicosadienoic acid (EDA). Taken together, our results propose that altered gut microbiota regulates metabolites to affect the development of atopic dermatitis in ASD children.
Dong et al. (Tue,) studied this question.