The Role of Gut Microbiota in Gastrointestinal Symptoms of Children with ASD
Open accessAbstract
Background and objectives: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired communication, social interaction disorder, and repetitive behavior. Dysbiotic gut microbiota (GM) could be a contributing factor to the appearance of ASD, as gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are comorbidities frequently reported in ASD. As there is a lack of reviews about the role played by GM in the GI symptoms of ASD, this work aimed to carry out a systematic review of current studies comparing the GM of children with ASD and GI symptoms with those of healthy controls in the last six years. Materials and Methods: The systematic review was performed following the PRISMA guidelines. The databases chosen were Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and PsycINFO, and the keywords were (gut* OR intestine* OR bowel* OR gastrointestinal*) AND (microbiota* OR microflora* OR bacteria* OR microbiome* OR flora* OR bacterial* OR bacteria* OR microorganism* OR feces* OR stool*) AND (autistic* OR autism* OR ASD*). Results: A total of 16 articles were included. Ten articles performed correlations analysis between GI symptoms and ASD. Among those 10 articles, 7 found differences between the GI symptoms present in children with ASD and healthy controls. The most common GI symptom was constipation. Among the seven articles that found differences, three performed correlations analysis between GI symptoms and gut microbe abundance. Candida, Prevotella, Streptococcus, and Veillonella showed higher and lower abundance, respectively, in children with ASD and GI symptoms in more than one article. Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinomyces, Dorea, Lactobacillus, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratios showed abundance discrepancies. Conclusions: It is still too early to draw a conclusion about the gut microbes involved in GI symptoms of ASD. Future research should consider the relationship between ASD behavior, GM, and GI symptoms in a multidisciplinary way and homogenize sample characteristics.
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Quan et al. found a subgroup of people with ASD diagnosed with NCWS or celiac disease.
“Unsurprisingly, Quan et al. [74] find a subgroup of people with ASD diagnosed with NCWS or celiac disease.”
From Food Selectivity and Its Implications Associated with Gastrointestinal Disorders in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (2022) · cites this paper as [74]
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References 65 · Cited by 67
- Authors
- Martínez-González, A. E., & Andreo-Martínez, P.
- Affiliations
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Didactics, University of Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain
- Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Murcia, Campus of Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain
- Venue
- Medicina
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2019-07-26
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 408
- ISSN
- 1010-660X (ISSN-L)
- 1648-9144
- PMC
- PMC6722942
- OpenAlex
- W102454436
- Cited by
- 67
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 0.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Medicina (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- RUA, Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante (Universidad de Alicante) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, gut microbiota, gastrointestinal symptoms, constipation, children, dysbiosis, microbial abundance, Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Candida, Prevotella, Streptococcus, Veillonella, Lactobacillus, Dorea, Actinomyces
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Humans, Syndrome, Gastrointestinal Tract
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