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Gut Microbial Dysbiosis in Indian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

  • Human Microbiome
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Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a term associated with a group of neurodevelopmental disorders. The etiology of ASD is not yet completely understood; however, a disorder in the gut-brain axis is emerging as a prominent factor leading to autism. To identify the taxonomic composition and markers associated with ASD, we compared the fecal microbiota of 30 ASD children diagnosed using Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) score, DSM-5 approved AIIMS-modified INCLEN Diagnostic Tool for Autism Spectrum Disorder (INDT-ASD), and Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA) tool, with family-matched 24 healthy children from Indian population using next-generation sequencing (NGS) of 16S rRNA gene amplicon. Our study showed prominent dysbiosis in the gut microbiome of ASD children, with higher relative abundances of families Lactobacillaceae, Bifidobacteraceae, and Veillonellaceae, whereas the gut microbiome of healthy children was dominated by the family Prevotellaceae. Comparative meta-analysis with a publicly available dataset from the US population consisting of 20 ASD and 20 healthy control samples from children of similar age, revealed a significantly high abundance of genus Lactobacillus in ASD children from both the populations. The results reveal the microbial dysbiosis and an association of selected Lactobacillus species with the gut microbiome of ASD children.

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Acknowledgements

We thank MHRD, Government of India, Centre for Research on Environment and Sustainable Technologies (CREST) at IISER Bhopal for providing financial support. However, the views expressed in this manuscript are that of the authors alone and no approval of the same, explicit or implicit, by MHRD should be assumed. The sequencing and computational analysis were performed at the NGS Facility and HPC and computing facility, respectively, at IISER Bhopal. JP, AM, DBD, and RS received fellowships from the Central University of Kerala, Centre for Research on Environment and Sustainable Technologies (CREST, IISER Bhopal), UGC (University Grants Commission), and DST-INSPIRE, respectively.

Funding

This work was supported by the intramural funding received from IISER Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, and Central University of Kerala, Kerala, India.

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Author notes

  1. Joby Pulikkan, Abhijit Maji and Darshan Bharat Dhakan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genomic Science, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, India

    Joby Pulikkan, Binoop Mohan & Tony Grace

  2. Metagenomics and Systems Biology Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal, India

    Abhijit Maji, Darshan Bharat Dhakan, Rituja Saxena & Vineet K. Sharma

  3. Department of Psychology, Prajyoti Niketan College, Pudukad, Kerala, India

    Milu Maria Anto

  4. Department of Paediatrics and Neurology, Mahaveer Institute of Medical Science, Bhopal, India

    Neeti Agarwal

  5. Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Tony Grace

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Contributions

JP and BM collected the samples. DBD carried out the metagenomic data analysis and all computational and statistical analysis. RS and AM carried out the library preparation and sequencing work. AM, DBD, JP, RS, TG, and VKS drafted the manuscript. MMA and NA performed the diagnosis of all the cases. TG and VKS conceived the work and participated in the design of the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tony Grace or Vineet K. Sharma.

Ethics declarations

The protocols for sample collection, sequencing, and analysis as described in the “Materials and Methods” was conducted in accordance with the approved guidelines by the Institutional Ethical Committee of IISER Bhopal, India.

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Pulikkan, J., Maji, A., Dhakan, D.B. et al. Gut Microbial Dysbiosis in Indian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Microb Ecol 76, 1102–1114 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-018-1176-2

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