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Composition of gut microbiota in children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis
According to this 2020 article, dysbiosis (imbalance in microorganisms in the gut) and gastrointestinal comorbidities are often associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Therefore, the aim of this present review was to investigate the differences in composition of gut microbiota in children with and without ASD. Firstly, electronic databases were searched to find relevant studies for this meta-analysis. A total of 18 studies were included, equating to a dataset of 493 children with ASD and 404 non-autistic individuals. The main microbiota found in the gut of ASD children were of the phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria. These were more abundant in the autistic children than the healthy control subjects. In addition, the kids with autism showed a significantly higher abundance of the genera Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, Clostridium, Faecalibacterium, and Phascolarctobacterium and a lower percentage of Coprococcus and Bifidobacterium (compared with non-autistic participants). In conclusion, this meta-analysis provides evidence that there is an imbalance in the gut microbiota community of autstic children, which may affect their development and the severity of their ASD symptomatology. Additional research is encouraged to enhance our current knowledge on the effectiveness of pre- or probiotics in reducing autistic behaviors. [NPID: autism, autism spectrum disorder, ASD, autistic, children, meta-analysis, dysbiosis, gut microbiota, gut microbes, gut bacteria, GI, gastrointestinal]
Year: 2020
