Gut Microbiota in Patients with Type 1 Narcolepsy.

Abstract

PURPOSE: To explore the characteristics of gut microbiota and its relationship between clinical manifestations in patients with type 1 narcolepsy (NT1). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Scale and polysomnography were performed in 20 NT1 patients and 16 healthy controls (HC group) to evaluate the clinical characteristics of NT1. Illumina sequencing was performed on bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene using V3-V4 regions to compare the fecal microbiota in all subjects. Associations between clinical characteristics and gut microbiota were analyzed using partial correlation analysis. RESULTS: were lower (all P < 0.05). Partial correlation analysis revealed that partial differential bacteria in the NT1 group were correlated with total sleep time, sleep efficiency, stage 1 sleep, arousal index, and sleep latency (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our data revealed differences in intestinal flora structure between NT1 patients and the normal population, thus providing a theoretical basis for future microecological therapy for narcolepsy. However, future larger sample size studies and different study designs are needed to further clarify the possible pathogenesis and potential causality of intestinal flora in NT1 patients and explore the new treatment strategies.