Highlight talk – Theme: Data
Abstract
In studies of associations between human disorders and the gut microbiota treatment regimens are seldom controlled for, which may obscure microbial factors. We address disease and drug signatures in the human gut microbiome of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Two previous metagenomics studies of T2D patients unstratified for treatment yielded divergent conclusions in this regard. Using 784 available human gut metagenomes we show antidiabetic medication confounds these results, and analyse the effects of the most widely used antidiabetic drug, metformin. We provide support for microbial mediation of its therapeutic effects through SCFA production, as well as for microbiotal mediation of its side effects. Controlling for treatment, we report a unified signature of gut microbiome shifts in T2D with a depletion of butyrate-producing taxa. These cause functional shifts, in part alleviated by metformin-induced changes. We emphasize the need to disentangle gut microbiota signatures of human diseases from those of medication.
Authors
Kristoffer Forslund, EMBL, Germany
Falk Hildebrand, EMBL, Germany
Trine Nielsen, KU, Denmark
Gwen Falony, VIB, Belgium
Emmanuelle Le Chatelier, INRA, France
Shinichi Sunagawa, EMBL, Germany
Edi Prifti, INRA, France
Sara Vieira-Silva, VUB, Belgium
Valborg Gudmundsdottir, DTU, Denmark
Helle Krogh Pedersen, DTU, Denmark
Manimozhiyan Arumugam, KU, Denmark
Karsten Kristiansen, KU, Denmark
Anita Yvonne Voigt, EMBL, Germany
Henrik Vestergaard, KU, Denmark
Rajna Hercog, EMBL, Germany
Paul Igor Costea, EMBL, Germany
Jens Roat Kultima, EMBL, Germany
Junhua Li, BGI, China
Torgen Jorgensen, Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Denmark
Florence Levenez, INRA, France
Joel Dore, INRA, France
Henrik Bjorn Nielsen, DTU, Denmark
Soren Brunak, DTU, Denmark
Jeroen Raes, VIB, Belgium
Torben Hansen, KU, Denmark
Wang Jun, BGI, China
Dusko Ehrlich, INRA, France
Peer Bork, EMBL, Germany
Oluf Pedersen, EMBL, Germany
Source of publication
2015. Nature. Dec 10;528(7581):262-6. doi: 10.1038/nature15766.