Gut microbiota and dietary patterns in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder, but the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of ADHD remain unclear. Gut microbiota has been recognized to influence brain function and behaviors. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether imbalanced gut microbiomes identified by a 16S rRNA sequencing approach are involved in the pathophysiology of ADHD. We recruited a total of 30 children with ADHD (mean age: 8.4 years) and a total of 30 healthy controls (mean age: 9.3 years) for this study. The dietary patterns of all participants were assessed with the food frequency questionnaire. The microbiota of fecal samples were investigated using 16S rRNA V3V4 amplicon sequencing, followed by bioinformatics and statistical analyses. We found that the gut microbiota communities in ADHD patients showed a significantly higher Shannon index and Chao index than the control subjects. Furthermore, the linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analysis was used to identify differentially enriched bacteria between ADHD patients and healthy controls. The relative abundance of Bacteroides coprocola (B. coprocola) was decreased, while the relative abundance of Bacteroides uniformis (B. uniformis), Bacteroides ovatus (B. ovatus), and Sutterella stercoricanis (S. stercoricanis) were increased in the ADHD group. Of all participants, S. stercoricanis demonstrated a significant association with the intake of dairy, nuts/seeds/legumes, ferritin and magnesium. B. ovatus and S. stercoricanis were positively correlated to ADHD symptoms. In conclusion, we suggest that the gut microbiome community is associated with dietary patterns, and linked to the susceptibility to ADHD.