Effect of Fufang Huangqi Decoction on the Gut Microbiota in Patients With Class I or II Myasthenia Gravis

Yanghong Chen; Yi Lin; Caifeng Shan; Zhaoqing Li; Bo Xiao; Rencai He; Xueshi Huang; Zhanyou Wang; Jingsheng Zhang; Wenjun Qiao

doi:10.3389/fneur.2022.785040

Effect of Fufang Huangqi Decoction on the Gut Microbiota in Patients With Class I or II Myasthenia Gravis

Front Neurol. 2022 Mar 18:13:785040. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.785040. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yanghong Chen¹, Yi Lin², Caifeng Shan¹, Zhaoqing Li¹, Bo Xiao³, Rencai He³, Xueshi Huang⁴, Zhanyou Wang⁵, Jingsheng Zhang¹, Wenjun Qiao¹

Affiliations

¹ The Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Myasthenia Gravis, Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, China.
² Department of General Surgery, The First People's Hospital of Shenyang, Shenyang, China.
³ Zhejiang Jiuru Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Institute of Microbial Pharmaceuticals, College of Life and Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China.
⁵ Institute of Health Sciences, Key Laboratory of Medical Cell Biology of Ministry of Education, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of Fufang Huangqi Decoction on the gut microbiota in patients with class I or II myasthenia gravis (MG) and to explore the correlation between gut microbiota and MG (registration number, ChiCTR2100048367; registration website, http://www.chictr.org.cn/listbycreater.aspx; NCBI: SRP338707).

Methods: In this study, microbial community composition and diversity analyses were carried out on fecal specimens from MG patients who did not take Fufang Huangqi Decoction (control group, n = 8) and those who took Fufang Huangqi Decoction and achieved remarkable alleviation of symptoms (medication group, n = 8). The abundance, diversity within and between habitats, taxonomic differences and corresponding discrimination markers of gut microbiota in the control group and medicated group were assessed.

Results: Compared with the control group, the medicated group showed a significantly decreased abundance of Bacteroidetes (P < 0.05) and significantly increased abundance of Actinobacteria at the phylum level, a significantly decreased abundance of Bacteroidaceae (P < 0.05) and significantly increased abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae at the family level and a significantly decreased abundance of Blautia and Bacteroides (P < 0.05) and significantly increased abundance of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and Roseburia at the genus level. Compared to the control group, the medicated group had decreased abundance, diversity, and genetic diversity of the communities and increased coverage, but the differences were not significant (P > 0.05); the markers that differed significantly between communities at the genus level and influenced the differences between groups were Blautia, Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus.

Conclusions: MG patients have obvious gut microbiota-associated metabolic disorders. Fufang Huangqi Decoction regulates the gut microbiota in patients with class I or II MG by reducing the abundance of Blautia and Bacteroides and increasing the abundance of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. The correlation between gut microbiota and MG may be related to cell-mediated immunity.

Keywords: Fufang Huangqi Decoction; gut microbiota; myasthenia gravis; probiotics; taxonomic markers.