AUTHOR=Liu Hu , Cheng Gao , Xu Yuan-ling , Fang Qi , Ye Lei , Wang Chun-hui , Liu Xue-sheng 

TITLE=Preoperative Status of Gut Microbiota Predicts Postoperative Delirium in Patients With Gastric Cancer

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.852269

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.852269

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Post-operative delirium (POD) is a serious complication which occurs after surgery, especially in the elderly undergoing abdominal surgery. Increasing evidence has revealed an association between the gut microbiota and psychological disorders involving the “brain-gut” axis. However, the association between the pathogenesis of POD after abdominal surgery in aging and composition of the gut microbiota remains unclear.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Forty patients (≥65 years old) who underwent abdominal surgery were included in the study. Twenty patients had POD, whereas 20 patients did not. POD was diagnosed and assessed using the confusion assessment method (CAM) during the postoperative period. Total DNA fractions were extracted from all fecal samples of patients. 16S rRNA sequencing was performed to determine the composition of the gut microbiota. The quality of the samples was determined by calculating the α- and β-diversities.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The α- and β-diversities indicated that the samples were eligible for detection and comparison. We observed multiple differentially abundant bacteria in patients with and without POD. Generally, <italic>Proteobacteria, Enterbacteriaceae, Escherichia shigella, Klebsiella, Ruminococcus, Roseburia, Blautia, Holdemanella, Anaerostipes, Burkholderiaceae, Peptococcus, Lactobacillus</italic>, and <italic>Dorea</italic> were abundant in the POD cohort, whereas <italic>Streptococcus equinus</italic> and <italic>Blautia hominis</italic> were abundant in the control cohort. The results of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of <italic>Escherichia shigella</italic> was 0.75. Phenotype prediction showed that the gut microbiota may influence POD by altering the tolerance to oxidative stress.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>There were significant associations between the pathogenesis of POD and composition of the gut microbiota. <italic>Escherichia shigella</italic> are promising diagnostic bacterial species for predicting POD onset after abdominal surgery in elderly people.</p></sec><sec><title>Clinical Trial Registration</title><p><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx</ext-link>, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR200030131.</p></sec>