Study links gut microbiome changes to increased risk of type 2 diabetes

Key Takeaways

• Researchers have conducted the largest and most ethnically and geographically comprehensive investigation to date of the gut microbiomes of people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), prediabetes, and healthy glucose status.
• The study found that specific viruses and genetic variants within bacteria correspond with changes in gut microbiome function and T2D risk.

The gut microbiome is the ecosystem of microbes—bacteria, fungi, and viruses— that live in your intestines. Research over the last decade has linked changes in the gut microbiome to the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, these studies have been too small and varied in study design to draw significant conclusions. 

Therefore, researchers designed a large study to investigate the roles of species and strains that make up the gut microbiome in T2D and to determine what these microbes were doing. The study is the largest and most ethnically and geographically comprehensive investigation to date of the gut microbiome of people with T2D, prediabetes, and healthy glucose status. “The microbiome is highly variable across different geographic locations and racial and ethnic groups. If you only study a small, homogeneous population, you will probably miss something,” said co-corresponding author Daniel (Dong) Wang, MD, ScD. “Our study is by far the largest and most diverse study of its kind.”

The results, published in Nature Medicine, show that specific viruses and genetic variants within bacteria correspond to changes in gut microbiome function and T2D risk. Wang said, “When we analyzed this data, we found a relatively consistent set of microbial species linked to type 2 diabetes across our study populations. Many of those species have never been reported before.” The researchers also found evidence suggesting that bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—could be driving some of the changes they detected within certain strains of gut bacteria.

“We believe that changes in the gut microbiome cause type 2 diabetes,” said Wang. “The changes to the microbiome may happen first, and diabetes develops later, not the other way around—although future prospective or interventional studies are needed to prove this relation firmly.” “If these microbial features are causal, we can find a way to change the microbiome and reduce type 2 diabetes risk,” he added. 

Edited by Miriam Kaplan, PhD

Source: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Medical Xpress, June 25, 2024; see source article