Alterations of the Fecal Microbiota in Chinese Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Mounting evidence indicates that alterations in the intestinal microbiota may be associated with neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a putative autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. However, it has not been determined whether the intestinal microbiota and host immune status are altered in Chinese patients with stable MS. In our study, 22 Chinese patients with stable MS and 33 healthy controls were enrolled for fecal microbiota analysis and host immunity evaluation. The microbial diversity and composition, bacterial co-occurrence correlations, predictive functional profiles, and microbiota-cytokine correlations between the two groups were compared. We observed that while the overall structure of the fecal microbiota did not change significantly, the abundances of several key functional bacteria, primarily Faecalibacterium, decreased remarkably. Faecalibacterium and Granulicatella could be used to distinguish between patients with MS and healthy controls with an area under the curve of 0.832. PiCRUSt analysis revealed that genes associated with fructose, mannose, and fatty acid metabolism were significantly enriched in the MS microbiota. In addition, we also observed that the levels of several pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, such as IL-1ra, IL-8, IL-17, and TNF-α changed observably, and the abundances of key functional bacteria like butyrate producers correlated with the changes in the cytokine levels. Our present study indicated that altered composition of the fecal microbiota might play vital roles in the etiopathogenesis of MS by regulating host immunity, which suggests that microbiota-targeting patient-tailored early intervention techniques might serve as novel therapeutic approaches for MS.

Detection of Dysbiosis and Increased Intestinal Permeability in Brazilian Patients with Relapsing–Remitting Multiple Sclerosis

“…In the present study, we detected intestinal dysbiosis in RRMS patients receiving DMTs, and our results present some similarities with previous studies in non-treated patients [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Some of these similarities include decreased Lactobacillus spp.…”

“…In humans, the gut microbiota from untreated RRMS patients, from different populations (China, Japan, Germany, USA), differs from that of healthy controls, and patients with active disease present decreased microbiota diversity. Intestinal dysbiosis in MS was predominantly characterized by decreased Firmicutes, Clostridia clusters XIVa and IV, Faecalibacterium , Butyricimonas , Prevotella , and Lactobacillus species, and increased abundance of Pseudomonas , Mycoplasma , Haemophilus , Streptococcus , Akkermansia muciniphila , and Methanobrevibacter smithii [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. In addition, MS patients with increased peripheral Th17 lymphocytes and higher disease activity presented an increased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, Streptococcus amounts, and decreased relative abundance of Prevotella species [ 34 ].…”

Comparison of the Intestinal Microbiome of Italian Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Their Household Relatives

“…Generally, MS patients are characterized by gut dysbiosis in respect to healthy controls [ 9 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Firmicutes, such as Streptococcaceae, Ruminococcaceae, and Lachnospiraceae, which can induce inflammatory effects, were increased in MS patients in some studies [ 9 , 21 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ] and decreased in other ones [ 20 , 21 , 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Generally, MS patients are characterized by gut dysbiosis in respect to healthy controls [ 9 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Firmicutes, such as Streptococcaceae, Ruminococcaceae, and Lachnospiraceae, which can induce inflammatory effects, were increased in MS patients in some studies [ 9 , 21 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ] and decreased in other ones [ 20 , 21 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. On the other hand, Bacteroidetes, Prevotellaceae and Bacteroidaceae [ 9 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 27 , 28 ] were frequently reduced in MS patients and some of them, i.e., Prevotella , are related to increased intestinal Th17 cell frequency [ 9 , 24 ].…”

MAIT Cells and Microbiota in Multiple Sclerosis and Other Autoimmune Diseases

“…Other authors reported impaired immunomodulatory properties of the spore-forming fraction from MS patients compared to controls [ 15 ]. Along this line, the drop of butyric acid producers (that have anti-inflammatory and gut-barrier enhancer properties) has been described in Caucasoid and Chinese patients [ 16 , 17 ]. Recent works showed specific microbiota changes according to disease phases or phenotypic subtypes of MS [ 18 , 19 ], paving the way to possible tailored approaches to restore an anti-inflammatory microbiota.…”