Comparison of gut viral communities between autism spectrum disorder and healthy children

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder, which brings a great burden to the family and society. Gut microbiota is considered to be an important factor in ASD that easily affects function and development of the immune, metabolic, and nervous systems. However, most available studies have mainly focused on the altered gut bacteria, our knowledge of gut viruses in ASD children remains limited.

In this study, we collected fecal samples from ASD children and healthy controls, then analyzed and compared the differences of the gut viral communities between the two groups by viral metagenomic techniques.

The alpha diversity of the ASD virome was lower than that of the healthy virome, and the beta diversity had a significant difference between ASD and healthy children. Podoviridae accounted for the highest proportion of viruses in ASD patients, while Alphaflexiviridae was dominant in healthy controls. There was a statistical difference in the abundance of Microviridae between the two groups. Additionally, human astrovirus, picobirnavirus, and norovirus were detected by phylogenetic analysis.

This study revealed that alpha diversity was reduced in children with ASD, and different compositions in gut viral communities were observed between ASD patients and healthy controls. Changes in viral diversity and composition deepen our understanding of the differences in the gut viral communities between ASD and healthy children, and also provides a perspective for further exploration of viruses related to ASD children.