PD322 - GUT MICROBIOTA AND ECOLOGICAL NETWORK ANALYSIS IN PATIENTS WITH METABOLIC DYSFUNCTION-ASSOCIATED STEATOTIC LIVER DISEASE (MASLD)

PD322

GUT MICROBIOTA AND ECOLOGICAL NETWORK ANALYSIS IN PATIENTS WITH METABOLIC DYSFUNCTION-ASSOCIATED STEATOTIC LIVER DISEASE (MASLD)

N. A. Cruz Sancen^1,*, S. J. Lozano Herrera¹, J. F. Sanchez Avila², N. Torres y Torres³

¹Nutritional Sciences School, Health Sciences Division, Anahuac University Queretaro, Queretaro, ²Campus Monterrey, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, ³Fisiologia de la Nutricion, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico

Rationale: Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) is the most common liver pathology globally, frequently associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. This study aimed to describe the gut microbiota composition and its ecological interactions through network-based analysis in a Mexican cohort.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 31 participants (14 healthy controls [HC]; 17 MASLD) were enrolled. MASLD was diagnosed via transient elastography with a controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) ≥ 230 dB. Gut microbiota was analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq platform. Taxonomic composition and metagenomic inference (PICRUSt) were performed using QIIME 2. Ecological co-occurrence networks were constructed using CoNet and analyzed with igraph and poweRlaw packages in R. Serum amino acid profiles were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Results: MASLD patients exhibited higher body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) compared to HC. While alpha diversity was similar between groups, MASLD patients showed a significantly higher abundance of Prevotella and Actinobacteria. Metagenomic inference revealed overrepresentation of protein and amino acid metabolism pathways in MASLD. Accordingly, serum levels of aspartate, glutamate, alanine, tyrosine, leucine, and phenylalanine were significantly elevated in MASLD. Network analysis revealed lower connectivity, clustering coefficient, and network density in MASLD. Unlike HC, MASLD networks lacked scale-free properties and key hub nodes.

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Conclusion: Mexican MASLD patients present a distinct microbial signature and functional shift toward increased amino acid metabolism. The reduced complexity of microbial co-occurrence networks indicates a loss of universal ecological dynamics, which may drive the metabolic consequences of the disease.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared