Objectives: The association between diabetes and gut microbiome and virome is under-reported in Puerto Ricans. We sought to examine these associations in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study.
Methods: Our analysis included 321 participants with metagenomic profiling of stool samples. A participant was considered to have diabetes if their blood glucose was ≥126 mg/dL or they reported taking medication for diabetes. We examined Bray-Curtis (BC) dissimilarity across diabetes status. Multivariable Associations with Linear Models (MaAsLin2) were tested to identify gut microbial taxa, pathways and viral-like particles associated with diabetes.
Results: Among 321 participants (68.8 y±7.2 y; female 76%), 179 (55.8%) had diabetes. After adjusting for relevant covariates, BC dissimilarities based on diabetes status explained significant variation in taxonomic composition (P < 0.015). We observed an enrichment of several taxa in participants with diabetes, including Escherichia coli (β=2.26, FDR P = 0.04), Rothia mucilaginosa (β=1.12, FDR P = 0.11) and depletion of several taxa, including Clostridiaceae bacterium (β=1.03, FDR P = 0.16). Enrichment in pathways was also observed including pyruvate fermentation to propanoate I (β=1.37, FDR P = 0.001) and pyridoxal 5′-phosphate salvage II plants (β=1.56, FDR P = 0.003). We also observed enrichment and depletion of several viruses, including Casjensviridae (β=1.96, FDR P = 0.109) and Caudoviricetes (β=0.64, FDR P = 0.006), respectively, in participants with diabetes.
Conclusions: In this study, we observed enrichment of several gut microbial taxa, pathways, and viruses in participants with diabetes. This adds to the emerging evidence of the role of the gut in diabetes.