Oral Microbial Signatures In Children With Autism

This study investigated the oral microbiota in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to determine possible alterations in microbial composition and identify potential biomarkers for early detection. Dental plaque samples from 17 ASD (6-18 years) and 20 age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children underwent 16S rRNA sequencing. Analyses included α-diversity (Sobs, Shannon, Simpson, Simpsoneven), β-diversity (NMDS), and linear discriminant analysis (LEfSe) to identify the oral microbiota characteristics of ASD and TD. The bacterial species evenness in ASD was higher than that in TD. With relative abundance, seven discriminatory species were identified in the oral microbiota of ASD (Capnocytophaga leadbetteris, Streptococcus sobrinus, Leptotrichia wadei, Capnocytophaga granulosa, Prevotella salivae, Filifactor alocis ATCC 35896, Prevotella nigrescens), while six discriminatory species were identified in TD (Neisseria oralis, Actinomyces massiliensis, Haemophilus parahaemolyticus, Campylobacter concisus, Abiotrophia defectiva, Johnsonella ignava ATCC 51276). A model generated by random forest achieved an accuracy of 0.956, with receiver operating characteristic analysis yielded a sensitivity of 0.8, a specificity of 0.47, an area under curve(AUC) of 0.54 (95 % CI: 0.35 – 0.74) for differentiating children with and without ASD. This study showed that there were significant differences in oral microbial composition between ASD and TD. The diagnostic models based on key microbes may represent a pervasive dysbiosis that results in metabolites that affect the behavior of ASD.