Multiple sclerosis patients have a distinct gut microbiota compared to healthy controls

TLDR

Multiple sclerosis is an immune‑mediated disease whose etiology involves genetic and environmental factors, with gut microbiota hypothesized as a key environmental contributor. The study aimed to determine whether gut microbiota differ in relapsing‑remitting MS patients compared with age‑ and gender‑matched healthy controls. Fecal samples were profiled by hypervariable V3–V5 16S rRNA gene sequencing to generate phylotype profiles of the gut microbial communities. MS patients exhibited a distinct microbiome, with increased abundance of *Pseudomonas*, *Mycoplana*, *Haemophilus*, *Blautia*, and *Dorea*, whereas controls had higher *Parabacteroides*, *Adlercreutzia*, and *Prevotella*, supporting gut dysbiosis in MS.

Abstract

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.