The Diet-Gut Microbiome Interaction in Type 1 Diabetic and Type-1 Diabetic-Obese Pediatric Patients in Qatar’s Population

The prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes and obesity in Qatar is one of the highest rates among few countries in the world. Many studies have demonstrated microbiome as a potential factor contributing to the pathogenesis of NCD. To our knowledge, none of the previous studies has examined the gut microbiome pattern in metabolically compromised children in Qatar’s population. Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a common NCD among children in Qatar population, and interestingly a group of these children are obese. Hence, the objective of this study is to identify peculiar gut microbiome profiles in T1DM and T1DM-obese children in Qatar’s population. This study involves 70 pediatric subjects aged 6 to 12 years old divided into 4 categories: healthy control (HC), T1DM, T1DM-Obese and Obese. Anthropometric parameters, clinical biomarkers, treatments, and 24-hrs dietary recalls were collected. The microbiome characterization is based on 16S rDNA V3-V4 region using Illumina Miseq platform. QIIME 1.9.0 pipeline, R package, LEfSe and PICRUSt were all used for microbial analysis. Statistical analysis is considered significant when P <0.05. Dietary analysis was also performed and correlated with the observed microbiome patterns.We present here preliminary results of microbial profiles of the four groups. The main microbial differences among the groups were in Rikenellaceae, Prevotella, Bifidobacterium, Phascolarctobacterium, Sutterella and Blautia. The T1DM-OB group showed a unique microbial profile compared to the other groups, mainly characterized by a higher Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio and a higher abundance of Sutterella and Blautia compared to the T1DM and obese groups respectively. We propose that dietary patterns are the potential factor behind the differences observed in the gut microbiome of the different groups.