Type 2 diabetes is a complex metabolic disease and has been shown to involve alteration of the gut microbiota. Previous studies have primarily focused on changes in the bacterial microbiome, while ignoring the phage community composition. Extracellular phages can lyse host bacteria and thus influence the microbiota through positive or negative interactions with bacteria. We investigated changes in the extracellular phageome and discussed its role in T2D pathogenesis. We used a sequencing-based approach to identify bacteriophage after isolation of VLPs (virus like particles) from fecal samples. We identified 330 species of phages according to the predicted host bacteria from T2D patients (N=17) and nondiabetic controls (N=29). The phageome characteristics were highly diverse among individuals. In the T2D group, the intestinal phage population was altered, and the abundance of phages specific to Enterobacteriaceae hosts increased markedly. Meanwhile, the abundance of Enterobacteriaceae in the gut was significantly increased, and systemic LPS content elevation was observed in the T2D group. Additionally, a consortia of eight phages was found to distinguish T2D patients from nondiabetic controls with good performance (AUC>0.99).

2型糖尿病是一种复杂的代谢性疾病，已证明与肠道菌群的改变有关。先前的研究主要集中在细菌微生物组的变化上，而忽略了噬菌体的组成。细胞外噬菌体可以裂解宿主细菌，从而通过与细菌的正向或负向相互作用影响微生物群。我们调查了细胞外噬菌体的变化，并讨论了其在T2D发病机理中的作用。从粪便样本中分离出VLP（病毒样颗粒）后，我们使用了基于测序的方法来鉴定噬菌体。我们根据来自T2D患者（N = 17）和非糖尿病对照（N = 29）的预测宿主细菌鉴定了330种噬菌体。噬菌体特征在个体之间高度不同。在T2D组中，肠杆菌科主机明显增加。同时，丰富的肠杆菌科在T2D组中，肠道中的LPS含量显着增加，并且观察到全身LPS含量升高。另外，发现由八个噬菌体组成的联合体将T2D患者与具有良好表现的非糖尿病对照区分开（AUC> 0.99）。