P- 9 BIOMARKERS OF THE BACTERIAL, VIRAL AND HUMAN GUT TRANSCRIPTOME IN METABOLIC ASSOCIATED FATTY LIVER DISEASE (MAFLD) IN ARGENTINA

The functional dynamics of the gut microbiome and its interactions with the human transcriptome represent a niche for non-invasive biomarkers to risk-stratify MAFLD. This study aimed to identify gut transcriptomic signatures associated with MAFLD in Argentina. Stool samples, diet, demographic and clinical data were obtained from 33 biopsy-proven MAFLD patients (12 simple steatosis -SS- and 21 steatohepatitis -SH-) and 19 healthy volunteers (HV). RNA-seq was performed in NovaSeq6000®. Data were analyzed with Maaslin2-v1.2.0, bioBakery-v1.8 and DESeq2-v4.1. Co-expression analysis was performed with Hmisc-v4.7-0. BMI was higher in MAFLD, particularly in SH patients (q=4.49 × 10−6). After adjusting for BMI, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found when comparing MAFLD vs. HV and SH vs. SS in bacterial (5 and 13, respectively), viral (112 and 26, respectively) and human (4 and 46, respectively), transcriptomes (q