Gut Microbiota of the Asian-Indian Type 2 Diabetes Phenotype: How Different It Is from the Rest of the World?

Abstract

The role of gut microbiota in type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been investigated through many recent studies conducted in different parts of the globe. However, intrinsic differences in the gut microbiota related to geography, ethnicity, dietary preferences, etc. tend to confound the disease-associated differences and make the search for any universal T2D-specific signature a challenging task. The present work makes an attempt to identify population or sub-population specific consensus gut microbiota signatures of T2D with a particular focus on Asian-Indians, who are reported to exhibit a distinct T2D phenotype. In this process, the article reviews and summarizes different microbial genera that have been reported to be associated with T2D in earlier studies conducted in different geographies. The results indicate that while the taxonomic signatures of T2D-associated gut microbiota (i.e. the presence and abundance of particular genera) may vary between populations, their functional roles in context of T2D pathophysiology have more coherence. Furthermore, it appears that while the gut microbiota of T2D subjects from different geographies are characterized by a combination of depletion of beneficial/ commensal taxa as well as an enrichment of harmful, pro-inflammatory and infectious taxonomic groups, the latter phenomenon may be more prevalent in Asian-Indian T2D subjects.