New research uncovers gut microbial markers common across multiple diseases, paving the way for more accurate disease prediction and personalized treatments. Study: A population-scale analysis of 36 gut microbiome studies reveals universal species signatures for common diseases . Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock A study published in the Nature Portfolio journal Biofilms and Microbiomes finds significant variations in gut microbial compositions across common human diseases in the Chinese population.
Background The gut microbiota plays a vital role in human health and disease. Because of its remarkable plasticity, the overall composition of gut microbiota often remains stable even after acute changes in the physiological system. However, chronic and prolonged exposure to stressors can lead to gut microbiota dysbiosis, an imbalance in gut microbial composition that favors the selection of harmful pathogenic microorganisms over beneficial microorganisms.
Two distinct enterotypes were identified in the gut microbiomes, dominated by Bacteroides and Prevotella, offering a broader understanding of gut microbial community structure. Gut microbiota dysbiosis has been observed in several diseases, including autoimmune, cardiometabolic, infectious, psychiatric, and cancer. However, the precise cause of microbial dysbiosis in different disease conditions is not fully known due to several challenges, including the lack of unified reference databases, the low accuracy of bacterial .