Characterization of changes in the gut microbiota associated with eating disorders

Eating disorders are serious pathologies with a strong negative impact on patients' quality of life and mortality. The gut microbiota was recently proposed as one of the potential factors involved in eating disorders. To gain a better understanding of the potential role of the gut microbiota in these diseases, we explored its composition in patients with all typical forms of eating disorders.

We used 16S rRNA sequencing to compare the composition of the faecal microbiota of patients with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge-eating disorder, with that of healthy individuals.

Our results demonstrate that each type of eating disorder is associated with a specific gut bacterial signature. We observed, for example, a decrease in the relative abundances of Agathobacter and Romboutsia genera and an increase in Pseudomonas in patients diagnosed with anorexia, while patients diagnosed with binge-eating disorder exhibit a decrease in the relative abundances of Akkermansia and Intestinimonas genera and an increase in Streptococcus, Eggerthella and Proteus. We also highlight a heterogeneity in gut microbiota composition in different subcategories of eating disorders. By focusing on the comorbidities reported by patients, we finally identified several bacterial taxa, such as Acidaminococcus and Eggerthella genera, whose level correlates with the occurrence of anxiety or depressive-like symptoms.

Together, our work demonstrates that eating disorders are associated with specific changes in gut microbiota composition and highlight the necessity to finely stratify patients to identify robust microbial signatures. In addition, we identified bacterial taxa correlating with comorbidities and decreased quality of life reported by patients. Our results now pave the way for determining the predictive value of the abundance of these taxa on the duration of the pathology or on the likelihood of relapse. They also constitute a valuable resource to further demonstrate the causal role of the gut microbiota in the onset or chronicisation of eating disorders.