Gut microbiota differences between psoriatic arthritis and undifferentiated arthritis patients

Abstract

Introduction Psoriatic arthritis (PSA) is a form of immune-mediated inflammatory arthritis. Studying the gut microbiota of PSA patients may offer new insights into the pathophysiology of this inflammatory joint disease. We designed a prospective study to examine gut microbiome from patients with PSA, primarily with enthesitis and dactylitis, and compared the data with undifferentiated arthritis patients (NO PSA), without enthesitis or dactylitis.Methods We enrolled nine PSA patients and 10 NO PSA patients in this study. The fecal samples were investigated by using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, followed by bioinformatics and statistical analyses. Results None of the available objective clinical laboratory data could differentiate PSA from the NO PSA subgroup. The microbiota result shows that Family: XIII_AD3011 is significantly higher in NO PSA patients than PSA patients’ stool samples (p=0.039). Megasphaera elsdenii in the PSA was 10000 times higher than in the NO PSA group.Conclusion Our results demonstrated high intra-group homogeneous and high inter-group heterogeneous microbiota. The clinical symptoms of either enthesitis or dactylitis link to the specific microbiota in the current study. In the future, a larger cohort and thorough biochemical study is needed for confirmation.

Longitudinal profiling of the gut microbiome in patients with psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis: a multicentre, prospective, observational study

“…Growing evidence during recent years has linked gut microbiome alterations with an increased disposition to develop chronic rheumatic diseases [15]. Particularly, the PsA link to the microbiome has been the target of a number of promising studies [12,[37][38][39][40]. However, there is a paucity of information at the microbiotametabolite-immunology network level in the setting and development of the disease.…”

“…Scher et al have recently identified a different gut microbiota in PsA patients and a concomitant reduction in short chain fatty acids (SCFA) when compared with healthy controls [21]. All these evidences suggest a link between an altered gut microbiome and PsA [12,22]. Furthermore, there are several recognisable clinical patterns of PsA that overlap with AS and some cases may be even indistinguishable [4].…”

“…HLA-B27 is a well-established major risk factor for the development of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), but also 15-20% of PsA patients express HLA-B27 with a stronger association with the axial distribution of the disease [8,9]. Additional risk factors for psoriatic arthritis include obesity [10], smoking [11], the presence of nail psoriasis and possibly the severity and distribution of psoriasis, some of these factors are linked to the host's microbiome [12,13].…”