- Tremlett, Helen;
- Fadrosh, Douglas W;
- Faruqi, Ali A;
- Hart, Janace;
- Roalstad, Shelly;
- Graves, Jennifer;
- Lynch, Susan;
- Waubant, Emmanuelle;
- Centers, Network of Pediatric MS;
- Aaen, Greg;
- Belman, Anita;
- Benson, Leslie;
- Casper, Charlie;
- Chitnis, Tanuja;
- Gorman, Mark;
- Harris, Yolanda;
- Krupp, Lauren;
- Lotze, Tim E;
- Lulu, Sabina;
- Ness, Jayne;
- Olsen, Cody;
- Roan, Erik;
- Rodriguez, Moses;
- Rose, John;
- Simmons, Timothy C;
- Tillema, Jan-Mendelt;
- Weber, Wendy;
- Weinstock-Guttman, Bianca
We explored the association between baseline gut microbiota (16S rRNA biomarker sequencing of stool samples) in 17 relapsing-remitting pediatric MS cases and risk of relapse over a mean 19.8 months follow-up. From the Kaplan-Meier curve, 25% relapsed within an estimated 166 days from baseline. A shorter time to relapse was associated with Fusobacteria depletion (p=0.001 log-rank test), expansion of the Firmicutes (p=0.003), and presence of the Archaea Euryarchaeota (p=0.037). After covariate adjustments for age and immunomodulatory drug exposure, only absence (vs. presence) of Fusobacteria was associated with relapse risk (hazard ratio=3.2 (95% CI: 1.2-9.0), p=0.024). Further investigation is warranted. Findings could offer new targets to alter the MS disease course.