Eczema May Be Masking the Effects of Multiple Sclerosis on the Gut Microbiome

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune-mediated neurodegenerative disease with no cure leading to physical disability and cognitive impairment. Eczema patients often have an altered gut microbiota and increased susceptibility to autoimmune illnesses such as multiple sclerosis. In addition, these patients with multiple sclerosis and eczema are generally burdened with taking a higher number of medications, which can impact gut microbial diversity. However, the impact of eczema on multiple sclerosis and corresponding medication intake in treatment has yet to be fully established. Here, we investigate gut microbiome composition in multiple sclerosis patients and healthy controls with and without eczema that take varying medication types. QIIME2 was utilised to process 16S rRNA gut microbiome sequences from the International Multiple Sclerosis Microbiome Study prior to analyses on alpha and beta diversity, core microbiome, and indicator species with R. Interestingly, significant differences in beta diversity between multiple sclerosis patients and healthy controls were only observed if patients did not have eczema. Similarly, significant beta diversity differences between patients taking or not taking over-the-counter medication were only observed if patients did not have eczema. Eczema was concluded to potentially mask the effects of multiple sclerosis and over-the-counter medication use, creating a mediating effect on the gut microbiome. Indicator taxa analysis of multiple sclerosis patients reveals 28 indicator species for eczema, suggesting a unique gut microbial community in eczema patients. This suggests that additional consideration should be taken when deciding treatment courses for multiple sclerosis patients with and without eczema.