The Microbiome as a Therapeutic Target for Multiple Sclerosis: Can Genetically Engineered Probiotics Treat the Disease?
Department of Biology, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA 99004, USA
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Diseases 2020, 8(3), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases8030033
Received: 31 July 2020
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Revised: 15 August 2020
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Accepted: 25 August 2020
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Published: 30 August 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gut Microbiome and Human Diseases II)
There is an increasing interest in the intestinal microbiota as a critical regulator of the development and function of the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems. Experimental work in animal models has provided the foundation for clinical studies to investigate associations between microbiota composition and function and human disease, including multiple sclerosis (MS). Initial work done using an animal model of brain inflammation, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), suggests the existence of a microbiota–gut–brain axis connection in the context of MS, and microbiome sequence analyses reveal increases and decreases of microbial taxa in MS intestines. In this review, we discuss the impact of the intestinal microbiota on the immune system and the role of the microbiome–gut–brain axis in the neuroinflammatory disease MS. We also discuss experimental evidence supporting the hypothesis that modulating the intestinal microbiota through genetically modified probiotics may provide immunomodulatory and protective effects as a novel therapeutic approach to treat this devastating disease.
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Keywords:
probiotics; microbiota; microbiome; multiple sclerosis; EAE
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MDPI and ACS Style
Kohl, H.M.; Castillo, A.R.; Ochoa-Repáraz, J. The Microbiome as a Therapeutic Target for Multiple Sclerosis: Can Genetically Engineered Probiotics Treat the Disease? Diseases 2020, 8, 33. https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases8030033
AMA Style
Kohl HM, Castillo AR, Ochoa-Repáraz J. The Microbiome as a Therapeutic Target for Multiple Sclerosis: Can Genetically Engineered Probiotics Treat the Disease? Diseases. 2020; 8(3):33. https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases8030033
Chicago/Turabian StyleKohl, Hannah M., Andrea R. Castillo, and Javier Ochoa-Repáraz. 2020. "The Microbiome as a Therapeutic Target for Multiple Sclerosis: Can Genetically Engineered Probiotics Treat the Disease?" Diseases 8, no. 3: 33. https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases8030033
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