Gut Microbiota Profiles in Pediatric Epilepsy Patients Before and After ACTH Therapy

A preliminary study of gut microbiota composition in 18 pediatric patients with Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome (IESS), compared to focal epilepsy and healthy control groups. The dataset includes 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing results from fecal samples collected before and after adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) treatment. The study was authored by Xuan Zhang and shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license on figshare in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Identify microbial biomarkers for treatment response based on pre-treatment abundances of Actinobacteria and Bifidobacteria.
• Analyze changes in microbial network structure and aggregation before and after ACTH therapy.
• Compare gut microbiota diversity and composition between IESS, focal epilepsy, and healthy pediatric groups.
• Investigate metabolic pathway shifts, such as amino acid and retinol metabolism, in relation to therapy.

Strengths

• Includes data from 18 patients and two age-matched control groups, providing a comparative baseline.
• Contains longitudinal data with samples collected both before and after a specific medical intervention (ACTH therapy).
• Uses 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing, a standard method for microbiome profiling.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The study's preliminary nature and small cohort size (18 patients) are noted by the authors as requiring validation.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Xuan Zhang.

Collection Method

Fecal samples were collected from pediatric patients and subjected to 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis.

Time Range

The temporal coverage of the underlying study is not specified.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-15 05:44:10; freshness should be verified.

Geography

The geographic coverage of the patient cohort is not specified.