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. 2021 Dec;12(1):1754-1770.
doi: 10.1080/21505594.2021.1948252.

Suppressed inflammation in obese children induced by a high-fiber diet is associated with the attenuation of gut microbial virulence factor genes

Affiliations

Suppressed inflammation in obese children induced by a high-fiber diet is associated with the attenuation of gut microbial virulence factor genes

Hui Li et al. Virulence. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

In our previous study, a gut microbiota-targeted dietary intervention with a high-fiber diet improved the immune status of both genetically obese (Prader-Willi Syndrome, PWS) and simple obese (SO) children. However, PWS children had higher inflammation levels than SO children throughout the trial, the gut microbiota of the two cohorts was similar. As some virulence factors (VFs) produced by the gut microbiota play a role in triggering host inflammation, this study compared the characteristics and changes of gut microbial VF genes of the two cohorts before and after the intervention using a fecal metagenomic dataset. We found that in both cohorts, the high-fiber diet reduced the abundance of VF, and particularly pathogen-specific, genes. The composition of VF genes was also modulated, especially for offensive and defensive VF genes. Furthermore, genes belonging to invasion, T3SS (type III secretion system), and adherence classes were suppressed. Co-occurrence network analysis detected VF gene clusters closely related to host inflammation in each cohort. Though these cohort-specific clusters varied in VF gene combinations and cascade reactions affecting inflammation, they mainly contained VFs belonging to iron uptake, T3SS, and invasion classes. The PWS group had a lower abundance of VF genes before the trial, which suggested that other factors could also be responsible for the increased inflammation in this cohort. This study provides insight into the modulation of VF gene structure in the gut microbiota by a high-fiber diet, with respect to reduced inflammation in obese children, and differences in VF genes between these two cohorts.

Keywords: Virulence factor; gut microbiota; high-fiber diet; inflammation; metagenomic; obesity; prader-willi syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Dietary intervention alters gut microbial virulence factor (VF) genes in both Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) and simple obese (SO) groups. (a) The differences and correlations in the average abundance of VF genes between PWS and SO groups at different intervention time points. The groups were clustered with “Euclidean” and “Complete” methods based on the average abundance of the VF genes. The significance of the clustering is indicated with a black asterisk (PERMANOVA, * P < 0.05, permutations = 9,999). In the heatmap, the color indicates the Spearman correlation coefficient among groups, and the white asterisk indicates the significance of the ANOVA permutation test (* P < 0.05 and ** P < 0.01, permutations = 999). The mapping rate of the VF genes to the virulence factor database (VFDB) (b) and the relative proportion of pathogen-specific VF genes (c) of PWS and SO groups at different intervention time points. Boxes denote the medians and interquartile ranges (IQRs), and the whiskers denote the lowest and the highest values that were within 1.5 times the IQR from the first and third quartiles, respectively. A Wilcoxon matched-pair test (two-tailed) was used to analyze each pairwise comparison within groups. A Wilcoxon unpaired test was used to analyze differences between the PWS and SO cohorts before or after the dietary intervention. *P < 0.05 (adjusted by the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure). For PWS, n = 17 on day 0 (PS00), 30 (PS30), 60 (PS60), and 90 (PS90); For SO, n = 19 on day 0 (SO00) and day 30 (SO30)
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Changes in gut virulence factor (VF) genes after the intervention in the simple obese (SO) group. (a) The prevalence of VF genes in the SO group on dietary intervention day 0 (SO00) and 30 (SO30). (b) Radar chart shows the top eight abundant VF classes that decreased after the intervention. Each spoke in the chart represents one VF class, and the concentric circle indicates the abundance. (c) The relative abundance (natural log transformed) of the 47 featured differential VF genes before and after intervention in the SO group. These VF genes were selected using random forest feature selection and with a more than 8-fold change in abundance between SO00 and SO30
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Changes of gut virulence factor (VF) genes along with the dietary intervention time in the Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) cohort. (a) The prevalence of the VF genes in the PWS cohort on dietary intervention day 0 (PS00), 30 (PS30), 60 (PS60), and 90 (PS90). (b) Radar chart shows that the top eight abundant VF classes decreased after the intervention. Each spoke in the chart represents one VF class and the concentric circle indicates the abundance. (c) The relative abundance (natural log transformed) of the 36 featured differential VF genes before and after the intervention in the PWS cohort. These VF genes were selected using random forest feature selection and with a more than 8-fold change in abundance between PS00 and PS90
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Comparison of the detected virulence factor (VF) genes between Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) and simple obese (SO) cohorts. (a) The prevalence of the gut VF genes between PWS (PS00) and SO (SO00) before the intervention. (b) The prevalence of the gut VF genes between PWS (PS90) and SO (SO30) after the intervention. The abundance (natural log transformed) of VF gene classes in the PWS and SO groups before (c) and after (d) the intervention. Boxes denote the medians and interquartile ranges (IQRs), and the whiskers denote the lowest and the highest values that were within 1.5 times the IQR from the first and third quartiles, respectively. A Wilcoxon test (two-tailed) was used to analyze differences between the PWS and SO groups. *P < 0.05 (adjusted by the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure)
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Dietary intervention decreases the inflammation indexes in Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) and simple obese (SO) groups. Changes in the six inflammation indexes (WBC, CRP, SAA, AGP, IL-6, and adiponectin) in PWS and SO groups based on different dietary intervention days were determined. Boxes denote the medians and the interquartile ranges (IQRs), and the whiskers denote the lowest and highest values that were within 1.5 times the IQR from the first and third quartiles, respectively. A Wilcoxon matched-pair test (two tailed) was used to analyze each pairwise comparison within groups. A Wilcoxon unpaired test was used to analyze differences between the PWS and SO groups before or after the dietary intervention. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 (adjusted by the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure). WBC: white blood cell count; CRP: C reactive protein; SAA: serum amyloid A protein; AGP: α-acid glycoprotein; IL-6: interleukin 6
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Clustered virulence factor (VF) genes related to the inflammation indexes are different between Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) and simple obese (SO) cohorts. The co-occurrence network of VF genes and inflammation indexes (WBC, IL-6, CRP, SAA, AGP, and adiponectin) in PWS and SO cohorts is shown. Each node represents one VF gene, and the color and size of the node indicate the class and the abundance of the VF genes, respectively. Squares represent the inflammation indexes. Red lines represent Spearman correlations between the VF genes and the inflammation indexes; gray lines represent the correlations between the VF genes; orange lines represent the correlations between the indexes. WBC: white blood cell count; CRP: C reactive protein; SAA: serum amyloid A protein; AGP: α-acid glycoprotein; IL-6: interleukin 6

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