Phenylketonuria Diet Promotes Shifts in Firmicutes Populations

Conclusions and Discussion The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a low-Phe diet on microbial gut community and its possible consequences on PKU patient wellbeing. Indeed, according to European guidelines for PKU management, the recommended diet should start as early as possible, usually before the age of 10 days, to prevent neurological damage (Singh et al., 2014; van Spronsen et al., 2017). This age corresponds to a well-recognized crucial step in microbiota acquisition and maturation (Dominguez-Bello et al., 2019) on which environmental factors may have a profound impact. To rule out a direct effect of PAH deficiency in microbiota alteration, subjects with mild hyperphenylalaninemia, under normal diet, were enrolled as control group. Bioinformatic analyses revealed several changes in the microbial taxa inhabiting the PKU gut compared with MHP subjects, as already suggested by Pinheiro de Oliveira et al. (2016). Nevertheless, some differences were observed between their study and ours, mainly ascribable to the different enrolled control group (healthy children instead of MHP), the different age range (4 out of their 8 PKU patients were <2 years-old), the sequencing method used (Ion Torrent vs. Illumina) and the subjects' ethnicity (Brazilian vs. Italians). In our cohort, the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes was similar, with slight decrease of both phyla in the PKU group. Although not statistically significant, both Bact...
Source: Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research