Reacción a "Gut microbiota markers associated with autism spectrum disorder identified"

Siew Ng and co-workers have conducted the largest study to date on the composition of the gut microbiome in patients with autism spectrum disorder. This area has been the subject of considerable debate, as previous studies comparing the composition of the microbiome in children with autism versus control groups had found alterations but these varied between studies. In 2021, a paper was published suggesting that the alterations observed in previous studies were a consequence of diet and not an intrinsic feature of autism. This is plausible, as children with autism often exhibit avoidance or refusal behaviours for certain foods, which can lead to a more restrictive diet. However, errors were detected in the paper and a correction was published in January this year, although it does not appear to change the overall conclusion.

Siew Ng's study confirms that diet explains some of the alterations in the microbiome, but even after controlling for this factor, differences are still detected. To do this, they analysed new samples and reanalysed data from previous studies. In addition, they did not limit themselves to examining the composition of the bacterial fraction of the microbiome (as many studies do), but also looked at archaea, viruses and fungi. Although the methodology has some debatable points, the data are publicly available, which will allow other teams to verify whether they reach the same conclusions.