Individualized network analysis reveals a link between the gut microbiome, diet intervention and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), a serious complication during pregnancy which is defined by abnormal glucose regulation, is commonly treated by diabetic diet and lifestyle changes. While recent findings place the microbiome as a natural mediator between diet interventions and diverse disease states, its role in GDM is still unknown. Here, based on observation data from healthy pregnant control group and GDM patients, we developed a new network approach using patterns of co-abundance of microorganism to construct microbial networks that represent human-specific information about gut microbiota in different groups. By calculating network similarity in different groups, we analyze the gut microbiome from 27 GDM subjects collected before and after two weeks of diet therapy compared with 30 control subjects to identify the health condition of microbial community balance in GDM subjects. Although the microbial communities remain similar after the diet phase, we find that the structure of their inter-species co-abundance network is significantly altered, which is reflected in that the ecological balance of GDM patients was not "healthier" after the diet intervention. In addition, we devised a method for individualized network analysis of the microbiome, thereby a pattern is found that GDM individuals whose microbial networks are with large deviations from the GDM group are usually accompanied by their abnormal glucose regulation. This approach may help the development of individualized diagnosis strategies and microbiome-based therapies in the future.