Fasting challenges human gut microbiome resilience and reduces Fusobacterium

Abstract

Gut microbiome has become a promising target for prediction, prevention and treatment of diseases. It is challenging to modified highly resilient gut microbiome. Diet is one of the determinants of gut microbiome variation. It is intriguing how fasting can affect gut microbiome. Herein, sixteen individuals were recruited with six individuals subjected to a water-only fast and ten individuals receiving a juice fast, both for seven days. Stool samples were collected daily prior to and post fasting. Water-only fasting dramatically changed the bacterial community that participants developed more homogenous gut microbiomes during the fasting period. Conversely, eight out of ten subjects were not significantly affected by juice fasting with no increased homogeneity between participants. Despite the personalized effect of water-only fasting on microbial taxa, relative abundance of Fusobacterium was reduced in four participants who harbored higher Fusobacterium prior to fasting compared to other two participants. Post fasting Fusobacterium remains consistently low across all six individuals. Microbiome changes due to water-only fasting remained in five subjects even after returning to their normal diet, indicating the resilience of gut microbiome was successfully challenged. These results provided preliminary data on how ceasing food intake can shift gut microbiome. Moreover, water only fasting could be a potential tool to reduce Fusobacterium, which promotes colorectal cancer.

Keywords

• Fasting
• Water-only fasting
• Gut microbiome
• Resilience
• Fusobacterium
• Diet microbiome interaction