Cited by 212Gut microbiota and healthGenetic Neurodegenerative DiseasesGastrointestinal motility and disorders

Microbiome profiling reveals gut dysbiosis in a transgenic mouse model of Huntington's disease

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Kong, Geraldine, Cao, Kim-Anh Lê, Judd, Louise M., Li, ShanShan, Renoir, Thibault, Hannan, Anthony J.·2020·Neurobiology of Disease

Abstract

Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by a trinucleotide repeat expansion in the huntingtin (HTT) gene, which is expressed ubiquitously throughout the brain and peripheral tissues. Whilst the focus of much research has been on the cognitive, psychiatric and motor symptoms of HD, the extent of peripheral pathology and its potential impact on central symptoms has been less intensely explored. Disruption of the gastrointestinal microbiome (gut dysbiosis) has been recently reported in a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders, and therefore we hypothesized that it might also occur in HD. We have used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize the gut microbiome in the R6/1 transgenic mouse model of HD, relative to littermate wild-type controls. We report that there is a significant difference in microbiota composition in HD mice at 12 weeks of age. Specifically, we observed an increase in Bacteriodetes and a proportional decrease in Firmicutes in the HD gut microbiome. In addition, we observed an increase in microbial diversity in male HD mice, compared to wild-type controls, but no differences in diversity were observed in female HD mice. The gut dysbiosis observed coincided with impairment in body weight gain despite higher food intake as well as motor deficits at 12 weeks of age. Gut dysbiosis was also associated with a change in the gut microenvironment, as we observed higher fecal water content in HD mice at 12 weeks of age. This study provides the first evidence of gut dysbiosis in HD.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.nbd.2018.09.001

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  • A higher relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and a lower relative abundance of Firmicutes are reported in both R6/1 and R6/2 mice compared with wild-type mice.

    “Moreover, a higher relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and a lower relative abundance of Firmicutes were reported in both R6/1 and R6/2 mice, as compared to WT mice.235,236”
  • The HDGEC study did not observe an increase in Bacteroidetes and a reduction in Firmicutes as reported in R6/1 and R6/2 mice.

    “However, the study did not observe an increase in Bacteroidetes and a reduction in Firmicutes, as reported in both R6/1 and R6/2 mice.235,236”
  • A notable difference in gut microbiota composition is observed between R6/1 mice and wild-type mice at 12 weeks of age, coinciding with motor deficits and weight loss.

    “A notable difference in gut microbiota composition was observed between R6/1 mice and wild-type (WT) mice at 12 weeks of age (early disease stage), which coincided with the manifestation of motor deficits and weight loss.235”

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1 of the 60 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Koroshetz, W.J., Jenkins, B.G., Rosen, B.R., Beal, M.F., 1997. Energy metabolism defects in Huntington's disease and effects of coenzyme Q10. Ann. Neurol. 41 (2), 160-165.
  2. Pratley, R.E., Salbe, A.D., Ravussin, E., Caviness, J.N., 2000. Higher sedentary energy expenditure in patients with Huntington's disease. Ann. Neurol. 47 (1), 64-70.

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Authors
Kong, G., Cao, K.-A. L., Judd, L. M., Li, S., Renoir, T., & Hannan, A. J.
Affiliations
The University of Melbourne (AU)
Corresponding author
Hannan, Anthony J.
Venue
Neurobiology of Disease
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-02
Volume
135
Pages
104268
ISSN
0969-9961 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2889638535
Cited by
212
References
60
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1
FWCI
5.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neurobiology of Disease (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
NHMRC (GNT1087415)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Genetic Neurodegenerative Diseases
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
Keywords
Huntington's disease, gut dysbiosis, gut microbiota, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, microbial diversity, sex differences, weight gain, motor impairment, fecal water content
MeSH terms
Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Huntingtin Protein, Animals, Brain, Disease Models, Animal, Huntington Disease, Male, Mice, Transgenic, Motor Activity, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Trinucleotide Repeat Expansion, Dysbiosis

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