Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated disease, the etiology of which involves both genetic and environmental factors. The exact nature of the environmental factors responsible for predisposition to MS remains elusive; however, it’s hypothesized that gastrointestinal microbiota might play an important role in pathogenesis of MS. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate whether gut microbiota are altered in MS by comparing the fecal microbiota in relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) (n = 31) patients to that of age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 36). Phylotype profiles of the gut microbial populations were generated using hypervariable tag sequencing of the V3–V5 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Detailed fecal microbiome analyses revealed that MS patients had distinct microbial community profile compared to healthy controls. We observed an increased abundance of Psuedomonas, Mycoplana, Haemophilus, Blautia, and Dorea genera in MS patients, whereas control group showed increased abundance of Parabacteroides, Adlercreutzia and Prevotella genera. Thus our study is consistent with the hypothesis that MS patients have gut microbial dysbiosis and further study is needed to better understand their role in the etiopathogenesis of MS.
Highlights
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated disease, the etiology of which involves both genetic and environmental factors
When relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients were divided into patients with active disease and those in remission, there was a trend towards lower species richness in patients with active disease compared to healthy controls (P = 0.1)
The present study demonstrates that RRMS patients have a distinct fecal microbiome compared to healthy controls, with certain gut microbes showing decreased or increased abundance in RRMS patients compared to controls
Summary
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated disease, the etiology of which involves both genetic and environmental factors. Detailed fecal microbiome analyses revealed that MS patients had distinct microbial community profile compared to healthy controls. The etiology of MS is complex and poorly understood Both genetic and environmental factors play a role[2,3], and recent evidence suggests that gut microbiota is one of the key environmental factors. Gut bacteria can influence the blood brain barrier integrity[10] These studies implicate that gut microbiota may potentially be operational in predisposition to or modification of the disease course of MS. We hypothesized that RRMS patients have gut microbial dysbiosis compared to healthy controls. We show that RRMS patients have a distinct microbial community profile compared to healthy controls. N Sex (M/F) Age (SD) Age of onset BMI Disease severity EDSS 6 ND Therapy IFNb Copax Tysabri None
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