Epigenetic alterations and microbiota changes in the saliva of individuals with binge-eating spectrum disorders compared with normal weight healthy controls

IF 5.2 2区医学 Q1 MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL

Life sciences Pub Date : 2025-05-08 DOI:10.1016/j.lfs.2025.123695

Francesca Mercante , Afrouz Abbaspour , Mariangela Pucci , Annalaura Sabatucci , Marianna Rania , Fani Konstantinidou , Valentina Gatta , Liborio Stuppia , Carlo Cifani , Cynthia M. Bulik , Cristina Segura-Garcia , Claudio D'Addario

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aims

Binge-eating spectrum disorders, including bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge-eating disorder (BED), have psychological, behavioral, and physical effects, which present significant challenges for accurate diagnosis and treatment. Identifying biomarkers is thus of relevance to improve diagnostic and treatment strategies.

Main methods

Saliva collected from female individuals with BED (n = 20), BN (n = 17), and normal weight healthy controls (NW-HC) (n = 20) was analyzed to assess salivary microbiome, exosomal miRNA expression, and DNA methylation of dopaminergic system gene components.

Key findings

Microbial diversity was significantly reduced in BED and BN groups compared to NW-HC. Differential abundance analysis revealed that Bacilli (class-level) were enriched in BN and BED, while Lachnospirales (order-level) were significantly depleted in BN compared to NW-HC. In total, 79 miRNAs were differentially expressed in patients compared with controls. Alteration in four of these miRNAs (let-7b-5p, mir-15b-5p, mir-429, and mir-221-3p) identified via network analysis as potentially relevant to psychiatric disorders, were confirmed to be significantly upregulated in both BED and BN compared with controls. Significant hypomethylation at specific CpG sites of the DAT1 gene was also observed in BED and BN groups relative to controls. Correlation analysis highlighted significant associations between specific microbiota genera, miRNA expression, and DNA methylation of DAT1 in both the BED and BN groups.

Significance

Our findings provide new evidence on the role of epigenetic modifications linked to alterations in salivary microbial composition and diversity in BED and BN, opening new avenues for future research and therapeutic interventions in eating disorders targeting miRNAs and microbiota.

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暴饮暴食谱系障碍患者与正常体重健康对照者唾液中的表观遗传改变和微生物群变化

暴饮暴食谱系障碍，包括神经性贪食症（BN）和暴饮暴食症（BED），具有心理、行为和身体上的影响，这对准确诊断和治疗提出了重大挑战。因此，识别生物标志物对改善诊断和治疗策略具有重要意义。主要方法收集女性BED （n = 20）、BN （n = 17）和正常体重健康对照（NW-HC）（n = 20）的唾液，评估唾液微生物组、外泌体miRNA表达和多巴胺能系统基因成分的DNA甲基化。与NW-HC相比，BED组和BN组的微生物多样性显著降低。差异丰度分析显示，芽孢杆菌（类水平）在BN和BED中富集，而Lachnospirales（目水平）在BN中显著缺失。与对照组相比，患者中总共有79种mirna差异表达。通过网络分析发现，其中四种mirna （let-7b-5p、mir-15b-5p、mir-429和mir-221-3p）的改变可能与精神疾病有关，与对照组相比，BED和BN中的这四种mirna的改变被证实显著上调。与对照组相比，BED组和BN组在DAT1基因的特定CpG位点也观察到显著的低甲基化。相关分析强调了BED组和BN组中特定微生物群属、miRNA表达和DAT1 DNA甲基化之间的显著关联。我们的研究结果为BED和BN中唾液微生物组成和多样性改变相关的表观遗传修饰的作用提供了新的证据，为未来针对mirna和微生物群的饮食失调研究和治疗干预开辟了新的途径。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Life sciences 医学-药学

CiteScore

12.20

自引率

1.60%

发文量

841

审稿时长

6 months

期刊介绍： Life Sciences is an international journal publishing articles that emphasize the molecular, cellular, and functional basis of therapy. The journal emphasizes the understanding of mechanism that is relevant to all aspects of human disease and translation to patients. All articles are rigorously reviewed. The Journal favors publication of full-length papers where modern scientific technologies are used to explain molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms. Articles that merely report observations are rarely accepted. Recommendations from the Declaration of Helsinki or NIH guidelines for care and use of laboratory animals must be adhered to. Articles should be written at a level accessible to readers who are non-specialists in the topic of the article themselves, but who are interested in the research. The Journal welcomes reviews on topics of wide interest to investigators in the life sciences. We particularly encourage submission of brief, focused reviews containing high-quality artwork and require the use of mechanistic summary diagrams.