Gut microbiota composition and its metabolites in different stages of chronic kidney disease

A growing body of study have documented the association of gut dysbiosis or fecal metabolites with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, it is not clear whether the phenomenon simply reflects the microenvironment changes correlated with the CKD severity or contributes to the progression of CKD. In this study, we identified the gut microbiota and metabolite in feces samples correlated with CKD severity using the Nanopore long-read sequencing platform and UPLC-coupled MS/MS approach. A cross-sectional cohort study was performed from 1 June 2020 to 31 December 2020. One hundred and fifty-six clinical participants, including 60 healthy enrollees and 96 Stage 1–5 CKD patients, were enrolled in this study. The ROC curve generated with the relative abundance of Klebsiella pneumonia or S-Adenosylhomocysteine showed a gradual increase with the CKD severity. Our results further revealed the positive correlation of increased K. pneumonia and S-Adenosylhomocysteine in gut environment, which may be of etiological importance to the deterioration of a CKD patient. In that sense, the microbiota or metabolite changes constitute potential candidates for evaluating the progression of CKD.