Comparison of Small Gut and Whole Gut Microbiota of First-Degree Relatives with Adult Celiac Disease Patients and Controls

Abstract

Recent studies on celiac disease (CeD) have shown the role of gut microbiota alterations in CeD pathogenesis. Whether this alteration in the microbial community is the cause or effect of the disease is not well understood, especially in adult onset of disease. The first-degree relatives (FDRs) of CeD patients may provide an opportunity to study gut microbiome in pre-disease state as FDRs are genetically susceptible to CeD. By using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we observed between the disease condition (CeD), pre-disease (FDR) and control subjects. However, differences were observed at the level of amplicon sequence variant (ASV), suggesting alterations in specific taxa between pre-diseases and diseased condition. Duodenal biopsies showed higher differences in ASVs compared to faecal samples indicating larger disruption of microbiota at disease site. Increased abundance of specific Helicobacter ASVs were observed in duodenum of CeD when compared to FDR (p < 0.01). In case of fecal samples CeD microbiome and Actinomyces. In addition, predicted functional metagenome showed reduced ability of gluten that ecosystem level diversity measures (except in the duodenum) were not significantly different is characterized by reduced abundance of beneficial taxa such as Akkermansia, Ruminococcus degradation by CeD faecal microbiota in comparison to FDRs and controls.