Karen Pendergrass, Standards Team

Probiotic supplementation addresses microbial dysbiosis and inflammatory processes in PCOS, improving metabolic and hormonal outcomes, thereby validating its role as an MBTI.

Statins target both microbial imbalances and inflammatory mechanisms in PCOS. By improving gut microbial composition and metabolic parameters, statins validate the microbiome signature of PCOS and enhance fertility and metabolic health outcomes.

Metformin targets both the microbiome and inflammatory mechanisms in PCOS, improving insulin sensitivity, reducing hyperandrogenism, and restoring ovulation. Its microbial effects validate the condition’s microbiome signature, making it a promising microbiome-targeted intervention for managing infertility in PCOS.

Secnidazole demonstrates dual efficacy in treating bacterial vaginosis by targeting pathogenic anaerobes while preserving beneficial Lactobacillus, validating both its role as a microbiome-based therapeutic intervention (MBTI) and the accuracy of BV’s microbial signature in guiding effective treatment.

Metronidazole addresses microbial imbalances in bacterial vaginosis by reducing Gardnerella vaginalis and promoting Lactobacillus growth, but biofilm-related resistance may contribute to high recurrence rates. Adjunct therapies are needed for long-term success.

Boric acid restores microbial balance in the vagina by increasing Lactobacillus and reducing harmful species, making it an effective treatment for recurrent BV and VVC.

Bovine lactoferrin has emerged as a promising microbiome-targeted intervention (MBTI) for bacterial vaginosis (BV). Clinical and preclinical studies confirm its dual-action ability to restore Lactobacillus dominance and suppress BV-associated pathogens like Gardnerella and Prevotella. These microbial shifts, combined with anti-inflammatory effects, validate both the efficacy of bovine lactoferrin and the diagnostic accuracy of the BV microbiome signature.

Probiotic interventions, particularly those involving Lactobacillus crispatus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, restore balance to the vaginal microbiome in bacterial vaginosis (BV). By reducing dominant anaerobes like Gardnerella vaginalis and promoting recolonization with protective Lactobacillus, these therapies validate both their role as microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs) and the diagnostic accuracy of the BV microbiome signature.

The MS drug Copaxone turns out to kill Gram-negative bacteria by disrupting their membranes.

A gut commensal depleted in MS suppressed the animal model as effectively as the drug glatiramer acetate.

The pivotal trial that established glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) as a disease-modifying therapy for MS.

The first trial to show a therapy repairing myelin in people with MS, using an old antihistamine.

A randomized pilot found Panax ginseng improved MS-related fatigue and quality of life over three months.

Low-dose oral zinc aspartate suppressed the animal model of MS and dampened effector T-cell cytokines.

Panax ginseng is a medicinal root whose ginsenosides have adaptogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antifatigue properties, and which is metabolized by and reshapes the gut microbiota.

How glatiramer acetate was validated as a microbiome-targeted intervention for multiple sclerosis: a proven clinical benefit, an antimicrobial mechanism against the signature's Gram-negative pathogens, and convergence with the microbiome signature.

Glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) is a random amino-acid copolymer used as an immunomodulatory drug whose mechanism also includes direct antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria.

Zinc aspartate is a bioavailable organic zinc-amino-acid complex used to correct zinc deficiency and studied as a low-dose immunomodulator.

Clemastine fumarate is a first-generation antihistamine with antimuscarinic activity, repurposed in neurology as a remyelinating agent that drives myelin-forming cells to mature.

Comparing 81 identical twin pairs discordant for multiple sclerosis, researchers moved ileal bacteria into germfree MS-prone mice. Ileal microbiota from MS twins triggered MS-like disease far more often than healthy-twin material, and two Lachnospiraceae species bloomed in the sickened mice.

After a 6-month sea voyage, seafarers showed significantly shifted gut microbiota, reduced predicted folate and biotin pathways, and 20 differential fecal metabolites, with the traveler's-diarrhea pathogen Plesiomonas rising and linked to increased acetylcholine.

In adults with type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal autonomic neuropathy worsened gut dysbiosis, with patients marked by enriched Gammaproteobacteria and Enterobacteriaceae, while type 2 diabetes without neuropathy was characterized by the phylum Fusobacteria.

Across 521 samples from 203 COVID-19 patients, upper respiratory and gut microbiota were altered in ways tied to disease severity, with reduced respiratory diversity, a high antibiotic-resistance risk in the airway, and gut changes directly linked to SARS-CoV-2 abundance.

In young South African children, age was the main driver of gut microbiota differences, while recent antibiotics and indoor wood or paraffin cooking fires were each linked to significantly lower bacterial diversity, marking these children as most at risk for dysbiosis.