Mental Health
Gut microbiome variations associated with depressive symptomatology in a cohort of Boston-area Puerto Rican older adults Deepika Dinesh* Deepika Dinesh Xochitl Morgan Sherman Bigornia Mahdi Garelnabi Kelsey M. Mangano Sabrina Noel Curtis Huttenhower Katherine L. Tucker Natalia Palacios
Background
Evidence suggests that gut microbiome variations and dysbiosis may be associated with depression. However, there is a lack of research on the microbiome, especially the virome, associated with depression, particularly in Hispanics/Latinos, who have unique lifestyle characteristics impacting gut and mental health. Here, we examined gut bacterial and viral variations associated with depressive symptomatology in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (BPRHS).
Methods
The BPRHS is a prospective cohort of Boston-area Puerto Rican adults. Our study comprised of 321 participants with fecal metagenomic sequencing and depressive symptomatology measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CESD) scale. Taxonomic profiling of bacterial and viral taxa was performed using MetaPhlAN and BAQLaVa 1.0., respectively. We examined cross-sectional associations between overall composition, measured by alpha (Shannon) and beta (Bray-Curtis) diversity, and CESD scores. We identified bacterial and viral taxa associated with CESD scores in feature-wise analyses using multivariate linear regression models (MaAsLin2).
Results
Among 321 participants (mean age 68.7y, 76% female), CESD score was not associated with alpha (P=0.66) or beta diversity (P=0.37). In feature-wise analyses, adjusted for age, sex and BMI, an enrichment of Klebsiella pneumoniae (β=0.74, P<0.01, FDR P=0.15), Clostridim AT4 (β=0.74, P<0.01, FDR P=0.15), Anaerotruncus colihominis (β=0.57, P= 0.01, FDR P=0.22), and Faecalibacterium phage Brigitvirus (β=0.41, P<0.01, FDR P=0.02), was associated with high CESD scores (increasing severity).
Conclusions
The observed enrichment of K. pneumoniae, associated with immune dysfunction, and Brigitvirus, reportedly enriched in patients undergoing antibiotic therapy, suggests that gut microbiome variations may be associated with depressive symptomatology. Future work will test interactions of gut bacteriome, virome and functional pathways related to depression.