Research advances in gut microbes and autism spectrum disorders

This paper concludes that recent research on the interrelationship between gut microbiota and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has gained significant attention. The study found that the composition of the gut microbiota in ASD patients is often markedly different from that of the general population, particularly in the species and abundance of beneficial bacteria, such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, which are frequently imbalanced. The imbalance in intestinal microorganisms not only affects gut health but also disrupts the neurological functions mediated by the gut-brain axis, exacerbating the behavioral and cognitive symptoms associated with ASD. In recent years, microbial interventions, including probiotics, prebiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), have shown some promise. The use of probiotics and prebiotics can increase the proportion of beneficial flora in the gut of patients with ASD, helping to produce anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids, thereby improving neurological symptoms. Additionally, FMT, which involves transplanting gut microbes from healthy individuals into ASD patients, has demonstrated significant improvements in both gut and behavioral symptoms in several studies. However, due to the high individual variability among ASD patients, a single microbial intervention is not consistently effective across all individuals. Some patients respond well to probiotics or FMT, whereas others show limited symptom improvement. This variability may be attributed to each patient's unique microbiota composition, immune status, and metabolic profile. Therefore, further research is needed to identify biomarkers that can predict the effectiveness of microbial interventions, thereby enabling more precise and individualised therapies. This review aims to provide guidance for future research and to offer a theoretical foundation and data support for exploring microbial modulation as a potential treatment for ASD.