Differential gut microbiota composition in β-Thalassemia patients and its correlation with iron overload

作者：Poochit Nonejuie, Alisa Wilantho, Daniel T. McDonald, Htut Htut Htoo, Jenjira Chalerm, Anupriya Tripathi, Chumpol Ngamphiw, Sissades Tongsima, Robert J. Knight, Kittiphong Paiboonsukwong, Suthat Fucharoen · 发表于：Scientific Reports · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1038/s41598-024-75456-4 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Gut microbiota and health、Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research、Iron Metabolism and Disorders

Recent research highlights the significant impact of the gut microbiota on health and disease. Thalassemia, a hereditary blood disorder, requires regular blood transfusions, leading to an accumulation of iron in the body. Such changes could potentially alter the intestinal microbiota, thereby increasing the susceptibility of thalassemic patients to infection. In this study, we analyzed the fecal microbiota of 70 non-transfusion-dependent (NTDT) β-thalassemia/HbE patients and 30 healthy controls. Our findings indicate that iron chelation intervention had no detectable effect on the microbiome profile of thalassemic patients. However, the cross-sectional analysis revealed that the bacterial diversity and community structure in patients were significantly less diverse and distinct compared to those of healthy subjects. Using reference frames, we were also able to demonstrate that bacterial taxa that are known to produce short chain fatty acids, from the genera Alistipes, Coprococcus, and Oscillospira, and those from the family Ruminococcaceae, were less prevalent in the patients. In contrast, bacterial taxa associated with an unhealthy gut, including the genus Clostridium and those from the families Fusobacteriaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, and Peptostrptococcaceae, were more prevalent in patients and found to be correlated with higher levels of ferritin. Collectively, these changes in the microbiota could be regarded as markers of raised ferritin levels, and therefore, awareness sh...