Gut Microbiota and ALS: A Systematic Review of 61 Studies

61 studies meeting inclusion criteria from a systematic review of 2,397 publications on the gut microbiome's role in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The review, authored by Debarghya Kumar Chakraborty and last updated in April 2026, synthesizes evidence from human and animal studies on microbial diversity, key taxa shifts, and mechanistic pathways.

Use Cases

• Summarizing evidence on microbial diversity changes in ALS patients based on the review's narrative synthesis.
• Identifying potential microbial pathways for therapeutic intervention based on described short-chain fatty acid and nicotinamide metabolism disruptions.
• Evaluating the quality and limitations of existing human and animal studies on ALS and dysbiosis based on the QUADAS-2 assessment mentioned.
• Designing longitudinal or interventional study protocols based on the review's identified gaps in causal inference.

Strengths

• Systematic methodology covering 2,397 studies from six major academic databases with no language or date restrictions.
• Focus on 61 high-quality, included studies assessed with the QUADAS-2 tool.
• Integrative analysis covering microbial taxa, metabolites, barrier integrity, and immune pathways.

Limitations

• Data is presented in a narrative synthesis within a 15.1 KB DOCX file, limiting direct computational analysis.
• The review notes a predominance of cross-sectional designs and small sample sizes in the underlying studies, limiting causal inference.
• Column-level documentation for any underlying data is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the review text.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Debarghya Kumar Chakraborty.

Collection Method

Systematic review of literature from PubMed, Medline, Embase, Scopus, Semantic Scholar, and Google Scholar.

Time Range

Literature search conducted up to November 23, 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04 13 05:20:47.

Geography

Studies included are not geographically specified; likely global.