Towards large-cohort comparative studies to define the factors influencing the gut microbial community structure of ASD patients

Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease
Daniel McDonaldRob Knight

Abstract

Differences in the gut microbiota have been reported between individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and neurotypical controls, although direct evidence that changes in the microbiome contribute to causing ASD has been scarce to date. Here we summarize some considerations of experimental design that can help untangle causality in this complex system. In particular, large cross-sectional studies that can factor out important variables such as diet, prospective longitudinal studies that remove some of the influence of interpersonal variation in the microbiome (which is generally high, especially in children), and studies transferring microbial communities into germ-free mice may be especially useful. Controlling for the effects of technical variables, which have complicated efforts to combine existing studies, is critical when biological effect sizes are small. Large citizen-science studies with thousands of participants such as the American Gut Project have been effective at uncovering subtle microbiome effects in self-collected samples and with self-reported diet and behavior data, and may provide a useful complement to other types of traditionally funded and conducted studies in the case of ASD, especially in the hypo...Continue Reading

References

May 10, 2013·Current Opinion in Rheumatology·Mady Hornig
Mar 13, 2014·Harvard Review of Psychiatry·Elaine Y Hsiao
Aug 1, 2014·Behavioural Brain Research·S M O'MahonyJ F Cryan

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Citations

Aug 2, 2016·Translational Research : the Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine·Maria KyrgiouAnna-Barbara Moscicki
Jan 31, 2021·Translational Research : the Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine·Inessa CohenErin E Longbrake

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