In Nature communications ; h5-index 260.0
Stunting affects one-in-five children globally and is associated with greater infectious morbidity, mortality and neurodevelopmental deficits. Recent evidence suggests that the early-life gut microbiome affects child growth through immune, metabolic and endocrine pathways. Using whole metagenomic sequencing, we map the assembly of the gut microbiome in 335 children from rural Zimbabwe from 1-18 months of age who were enrolled in the Sanitation, Hygiene, Infant Nutrition Efficacy Trial (SHINE; NCT01824940), a randomized trial of improved water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and infant and young child feeding (IYCF). Here, we show that the early-life gut microbiome undergoes programmed assembly that is unresponsive to the randomized interventions intended to improve linear growth. However, maternal HIV infection is associated with over-diversification and over-maturity of the early-life gut microbiome in their uninfected children, in addition to reduced abundance of Bifidobacterium species. Using machine learning models (XGBoost), we show that taxonomic microbiome features are poorly predictive of child growth, however functional metagenomic features, particularly B-vitamin and nucleotide biosynthesis pathways, moderately predict both attained linear and ponderal growth and growth velocity. New approaches targeting the gut microbiome in early childhood may complement efforts to combat child undernutrition.
Robertson Ruairi C, Edens Thaddeus J, Carr Lynnea, Mutasa Kuda, Gough Ethan K, Evans Ceri, Geum Hyun Min, Baharmand Iman, Gill Sandeep K, Ntozini Robert, Smith Laura E, Chasekwa Bernard, Majo Florence D, Tavengwa Naume V, Mutasa Batsirai, Francis Freddy, Tome Joice, Stoltzfus Rebecca J, Humphrey Jean H, Prendergast Andrew J, Manges Amee R
2023-Feb-14
