Changes in the Gut Microbiota of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Chinese kids with autism show a clear, replicable gut-microbe signature that could one day aid early screening.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Zou et al. (2020) compared stool samples from Chinese children with autism and same-age peers without autism.
They used gene sequencing to map which bacteria lived in each child's gut and what those bugs were making.
What they found
Kids with autism carried more bacteria that make branched-chain amino acids and fewer friendly probiotic strains.
The metabolic pathways also differed, hinting that gut chemistry could one day help screen for autism.
How this fits with other research
Xie et al. (2022) ran a larger version of the same design and saw the same pattern, boosting our confidence in the finding.
Zou et al. (2021) later showed the fungal half of the story: autistic kids also host unusual yeast levels.
Fujishiro et al. (2023) narrowed the lens to pre-term toddlers and still found the same microbial shift, proving the signal holds in high-risk subgroups.
Why it matters
You cannot change gut bugs with ABA, but you can add a quick GI question to your intake. If a learner has chronic stomach pain, loose stools, or food selectivity, ask the pediatrician about a stool test. Tracking these symptoms may speed medical care, reduce discomfort, and indirectly lower problem behavior rooted in pain.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Alterations in the gut microbiota may influence gastrointestinal (GI) dysbiosis frequently reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we sequenced the bacterial 16S rRNA gene to evaluate changes in fecal microbiota between 48 children with ASD and 48 healthy children in China. At the phylum level, the number of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia decreased in children with ASD, while the Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes was significantly higher in autistic children due to enrichment of Bacteroidetes. At the genus level, the amount of Bacteroides, Prevotella, Lachnospiracea_incertae_sedis, and Megamonas increased, while Clostridium XlVa, Eisenbergiella, Clostridium IV, Flavonifractor, Escherichia/Shigella, Haemophilus, Akkermansia, and Dialister decreased in children with ASD relative to the controls. Significant increase was observed in the number of species synthesizing branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), like Bacteroides vulgatus and Prevotella copri, while the numbers of Bacteroides fragilis and Akkermansia muciniphila decreased in children with ASD compared to the controls. Most importantly, the highest levels of pathogenic bacteria were different for each child with ASD in this cohort. We found that only one functional module, cellular antigens, was enriched in children with ASD, and other pathways like lysine degradation and tryptophan metabolism were significantly decreased in children with ASD. These findings provide further evidence of altered gut microbiota in Chinese ASD children and may contribute to the treatment of patients with ASD. LAY SUMMARY: This study characterized the gut bacteria composition of 48 children with ASD and 48 neurotypical children in China. The metabolic disruptions caused by altered gut microbiota may contribute significantly to the neurological pathophysiology of ASD, including significant increases in the number of species synthesizing BCAAs, and decreases in the number of probiotic species. These findings suggest that a gut microbiome-associated therapeutic intervention may provide a novel strategy for treating GI symptoms frequently seen in individuals with ASD. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1614-1625. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2358