Diet and gut microbiome interactions of relevance for symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome

We published a study entitled “Diet and gut microbiome interactions of relevance for symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome” in Microbiome journal.

First, we used a food tree approach¹ to explore dietary data from our cohort. We added a specific nutrient layer to this food tree and computed FSA-NPS diet index (used now to compute NutriScore in front pack food in Europe).

We notably observed that individuals with severe IBS symptoms consumed a higher amount of lower-quality food items during their main meals than healthy controls.

Thank to shotgun metagenomics combining with MSP pangenomes², we were able to study diet interactions at subspecies levels. We found an interesting signal with Eubacterium rectale flagelin and diet for instance.

Using co-inertia analysis between unifrac food tree and MSP at subspecies levels combining with machine learning, we were able to predict meat/plant ratio, exhaled gas and symptoms severity.

As we found some signals in exhaled gas, carbohydrate metabolism and IBS severity, we aimed to do a specific focus on gut microbial hydrogenase and found a differential signal that correlate with meat/mucin associated CAZy.

Our study³ provides an unprecedented resolution of diet-microbiota-symptom interactions and ultimately guides new interventional studies that aim to identify gut microbiome-based nutritional recommendations for the management of gastrointestinal symptoms.