Microbiome function and neurodevelopment in Black infants: vitamin B₁₂ emerges as a key factor

ABSTRACT

The early life gut microbiome affects the developing brain, and therefore may serve as a target to support neurodevelopment of children living in stressful and under-resourced environments, such as Black youth living on the South Side of Chicago, for whom we observe racial disparities in health. Microbiome compositions/functions key to multiple neurodevelopmental facets have not been studied in Black children, a vulnerable population due to racial disparities in health; thus, a subsample of Black infants living in urban, low-income neighborhoods whose mothers participated in a prenatal nutrition study were recruited for testing associations between composition and function of the gut microbiome (16S rRNA gene sequencing, shotgun metagenomics, and targeted metabolomics of fecal samples) and neurodevelopment (developmental testing, maternal report of temperament, and observed stress regulation). Two microbiome community types, defined by high Lachnospiraceae or Enterobacteriaceae abundance, were discovered in this cohort from 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis; the Enterobacteriaceae-dominant community type was significantly negatively associated with cognition and language scores, specifically in male children. Vitamin B₁₂ biosynthesis emerged as a key microbiome function from shotgun metagenomics sequencing analysis, showing positive associations with all measured developmental skills (i.e., cognition, language, motor, surgency, effortful control, and observed stress regulation). Blautia spp. also were identified as substantial contributors of important microbiome functions, including vitamin B₁₂ biosynthesis and related vitamin B₁₂-dependent microbiome functions, anti-inflammatory microbial surface antigens, competitive mechanisms against pathobionts, and production of antioxidants. The results are promising with respect to the potential for exploring therapeutic candidates, such as vitamin B₁₂ nutritional or Blautia spp. probiotic supplementation, to support the neurodevelopment of infants at risk for experiencing racial disparities in health.

KEYWORDS:

• Neurodevelopment
• Microbiome
• Vitamin B₁₂
• Black infant
• Health disparities

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Nutrition and Pregnancy families for their partnership, collaboration, and generosity. We thank the Duchossois Family Institute (DFI) for providing their expert technical services. We thank the Center for the Science of Early Trajectories (SET) for providing research coordinator resources.

Disclosure statement

Bree Andrews, MD/MPH is an equity partner in Preeme+You, a social benefit corporation, that support using mobile technology in the NICU to improve parent engagement and physician communication. There is no discussion of mobile technology in this manuscript. Erika Claud, MD has served as an expert witness for legal proceedings associated with the outcomes of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit unrelated to this research. The remaining authors have no competing interests they wish to declare.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in NCBI SRA at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/895372, reference number PRJNA895372, in addition to the provided supplementary tables.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2023.2298697

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health under Grants R01 HD084586 and R01 HD105234; and the University of Chicago Comer Development Board Grant.