Gut microbiota patterns associated with duration of diarrhea in children under five years of age in Ethiopia
Diarrhea claims >500,000 lives annually among children under five years of age in low- and middle-income countries. Mortality due to acute diarrhea (<7 days' duration) is decreasing, but prolonged (7-13 days) and persistent (≥14 days of duration) diarrhea remains a massive challenge. Here, we use a case-control study to decipher if fecal gut microbiota compositional differences between Ethiopian children with acute (n=554) or prolonged/persistent (n=95) diarrhea and frequency-matched non-diarrheal controls (n=663) are linked to diarrheal etiology. We show that diarrhea cases are associated with lower bacterial diversity and enriched in Escherichia spp., Campylobacter spp., and Streptococcus spp. Further, diarrhea cases are depleted in gut commensals such as Prevotella copri, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and Dialister succinatiphilus, with depletion being most pronounced in prolonged/persistent cases, suggesting that prolonged duration of diarrhea is accompanied by depletion of gut commensals and that re-establishing these via e.g., microbiota-directed food supplements offer a potential treatment strategy.
Authors
- Ola Bjørang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1827-8164)
- Josué L. Castro‐Mejía (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1416-8205)
- Øystein Haarklau Johansen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6020-7802)
- Łukasz Krych (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3224-1346)
- Alemseged Abdissa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3798-5037)
- Kurt Hanevik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1466-2326)
- Abigail C. Mapes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0757-6702)
- Getnet Tesfaw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0344-784X)
- Ashley Kates (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3843-0615)
- Zeleke Mekonnen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3418-7291)
- Rasmus Riemer Jakobsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7416-1358)
- Dennis Sandris Nielsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8121-1114)
- Mike Zangenberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6709-4502)
- Nina Langeland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0278-1616)
- Dawd S. Siraj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4433-9773)
- Nasia Safdar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3946-0437)
Institutions
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Jimma University (ET)
- Haukeland University Hospital (NO)
- Sykehuset i Vestfold (NO)
- Copenhagen University Hospital (DK)
- Southern Health and Social Care Trust (GB)
- Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries (DK)
- Armauer Hansen Research Institute (ET)
- University of Bergen (NO)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-09-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51464-w
- Citations
- 13
- Primary Topic
- Gut microbiota and health
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.04
Funders
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- University of Minnesota
- Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance
- Trond Mohn stiftelse
- Universitetet i Bergen
- Jimma University
- Norges Forskningsråd
- Sykehuset i Vestfold
- Genomics Center, University of Minnesota
- Medical Research Council