ABSTRACT
Introduction: The gut microbiome's influence on weight management has gained significant interest for its potential to support better obesity therapeutics. Patient stratification leading to personalized nutritional intervention has shown benefits over one-size-fit-all diets. However, the efficacy and impact on the gut's microbiome of personalizing weight loss diets based on individual factors remains under-investigated. Methods: This study assessed the impact of Digbi Health's personalized dietary and lifestyle program on weight loss and the gut microbiome end-points in 103 individuals. Participants' weight loss patterns and gut microbiome profiles were analyzed from baseline to follow-up samples. Results: Specific microbial genera, functional pathways, and communities associated with BMI changes and the program's effectiveness were identified. 80% of participants achieved weight loss. Analysis of the gut microbiome identified genera and functional pathways associated with a reduction in BMI, including Akkermansia, Christensenella, Oscillospiraceae, Alistipes, and Sutterella, short-chain fatty acid production, and degradation of simple sugars like arabinose, sucrose, and melibiose. Network analysis identified a microbiome community associated with BMI, which includes multiple taxa known for associations with BMI and obesity. Discussion: The personalized dietary and lifestyle program positively impacted the gut microbiome and demonstrated significant associations between gut microbial changes and weight loss. These findings support the use of the gut microbiome as an endpoint in weight loss interventions, highlighting potential microbiome biomarkers for further research.
ABSTRACT
Neuropsychiatric diseases and obesity are major components of morbidity and health care costs, with genetic, lifestyle, and gut microbiome factors linked to their etiology. Dietary and weight-loss interventions can help improve mental health, but there is conflicting evidence regarding their efficacy; and moreover, there is substantial interindividual heterogeneity that needs to be understood. We aimed to identify genetic and gut microbiome factors that explain interindividual differences in mental health improvement after a dietary and lifestyle intervention for weight loss. We recruited 369 individuals participating in Digbi Health's personalized digital therapeutics care program and evaluated the association of 23 genetic scores, the abundance of 178 gut microbial genera, and 42 bacterial pathways with mental health. We studied the presence/absence of anxiety or depression, or sleep problems at baseline and improvement on anxiety, depression, and insomnia after losing at least 2% body weight. Participants lost on average 5.4% body weight and >95% reported improving mental health symptom intensity. There were statistically significant correlations between: (a) genetic scores with anxiety or depression at baseline, gut microbial functions with sleep problems at baseline, and (b) genetic scores and gut microbial taxa and functions with anxiety, depression, and insomnia improvement. Our results are concordant with previous findings, including the association between anxiety or depression at baseline with genetic scores for alcohol use disorder and major depressive disorder. As well, our results uncovered new associations in line with previous epidemiological literature. As evident from previous literature, we also observed associations of gut microbial signatures with mental health including short-chain fatty acids and bacterial neurotoxic metabolites specifically with depression. Our results also show that microbiome and genetic factors explain self-reported mental health status and improvement better than demographic variables independently. The genetic and microbiome factors identified in this study provide the basis for designing and personalizing dietary interventions to improve mental health.