Interconnected pathways link faecal microbiota plasma lipids and brain activity to childhood malnutrition related cognition

<b>Interconnected pathways link faecal microbiota plasma lipids and brain activity to childhood malnutrition related cognition</b>Malnutrition affects over 30 million children annually and has profound immediate and enduring repercussions, with nearly half of child deaths under five linked to malnutrition. Survivors face lasting consequences, including impaired neurocognitive development, leading to cognitive and behavioural deficits, impacting academic performance and socioeconomic outcomes. Despite extensive literature on malnutrition’s associations with infections, metabolism, microbiome, and genomics, knowledge gaps persist around how these changes are mechanistically connected. The objective of this study was to identify gut microbiome mediated associations between Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) and cognitive development. Despite limitations, this study provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that inter-connected pathways between the gut microbiome, microbial metabolism mediate plasma lipids, brain activity, and cognitive functions. Causality between gut microbiome, plasma metabolite changes, and MAM phenotype remains unclear, necessitating further research. However, these findings offer insights to optimize interventions for MAM-associated neurodevelopmental changes.<b>Contents</b>This repository contains all data necessary for the downstream analysis for the manuscript submitted to Nature Communications.Metadata - meta.tsvAnthropometrics - anthro.tsvMicrobiome Quality - quality.tsvTaxonomic profiles - taxo.tsvPathway profiles - pathways.tsvPathway completeness - pathwayscomplete.tsvPathway stratified by taxonomical information - pathwaysstrat.tsvPredicted faecal metabolites - melon.tsvPlasma lipidomics - lipids.tsvPlasma lipidomics classes - lipid_classes.tsvEEG PSD - psd.tsvBayley score - bayley.tsvWolke score - wolkes.tsv<b>Instructions</b>To reproduce the analysis, download the 'results' directory and move into a cloned version of the github repository: https://github.com/theoportlock/m4efad<br>