Alteration in Gut Microbiome associated with Musculoskeletal Diseases and Arthritis

Among the key findings was the identification of several candidate microbes that exhibited differential carriage patterns in patients with elevated blood markers for inflammation. The results confirmed and expanded on previous observations of increased carriage of typically oral and inflammatory taxa, along with reduced abundance and prevalence of typical gut clades. These observations suggest that both distal inflammatory conditions and local conditions contribute to alterations in the gut microbial composition.

Moreover, the research team identified several differentially encoded pathways in the gut microbiome of patients with inflammatory arthritis. Notably, these included changes in vitamin B salvage and biosynthesis, as well as enrichment of iron sequestration. While some of these changes may have potential causal roles in inflammatory conditions, the researchers hypothesized that they primarily represent positive feedback responses to changes in the host's physiology and immune homeostasis.

Reference:

Thompson, K. N., Bonham, K. S., Ilott, N. E., Britton, G. J., Colmenero, P., Bullers, S. J., McIver, L. J., Ma, S., Nguyen, L. H., Filer, A., Brough, I., Pearson, C., Pawluk, A., Kiriakidis, S., … Taylor, P. C. (2023). Alterations in the gut microbiome implicate key taxa and metabolic pathways across inflammatory arthritis phenotypes. In Science Translational Medicine. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abn4722