Characteristic of gut microbiota in southeastern Chinese patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders

Background Emerging evidence indicated that gut microbiota might play an essential role in the pathogenesis of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD). The results are highly heterogeneous and mainly conducted in the patients of NMOSD AQP4+ status. Methods 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing targeting V3-V4 region was performed on fecal samples of 50 individuals, subdivided into NMOSD AQP4+ group (P1, n=14) and NMOSD AQP4− group (P2, n=8), and healthy controls (C, n=28). Results Fecal microbiome analyses revealed that gut microbial diversity and composition were distinctly different between NMOSD patients and controls. We also found that amounts of specific genera were correlated with disease-specific parameters. Remarkably, 9 genus-level microbial biomarkers were identified and acquired an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.97 between NMOSD patients and controls. Conclusions This study is the first to characterize gut microbiota features in NMOSD patients of AQP4+ status and AQP4− status. Further analysis revealed that both AQP4+ and AQP4− groups had certain unique microbiota profiles and metabolic pathways. Taking together, these findings not only support for NMOSD to the growing list of diseases associated with gut microbial alterations, but also suggest that the gut microbiota biomarkers may be a target for individualized treatment in future.