Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder exhibit changes in intestinal microbiota composition, potentially associated with low-grade inflammation and functional alterations that contribute to the development of diseases, and the composition of intestinal microbiota and its bioactive metabolites may serve as novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of AUD.
Gut microbiota alpha diversity differed among the control, AUD-T1 (admission) and AUD-T2 (discharge) groups.
The inflammatory marker myeloperoxidase was significantly higher in AUD patients at admission than in controls, while E-selectin showed the opposite pattern.
Several bacterial genera were more abundant in controls than in AUD patients at admission.
No differences in bacterial genus abundance were found between the AUD-T1 (admission) and AUD-T2 (discharge) groups.
The study was a prospective cohort of patients hospitalized for AUD treatment compared with a control group.
The authors conclude that AUD is associated with dysbiosis potentially linked to low-grade inflammation, and that microbiota and its metabolites may be therapeutic targets.
This study compared the gut bacteria of 47 men hospitalized for alcohol use disorder with those of 50 control participants. Patients were sampled when they were admitted and again at hospital discharge. At admission, patients had different levels of gut bacterial diversity than controls, and had lower amounts of several bacteria often considered beneficial, including Faecalibacterium, Bacteroides, Agathobacter and a group of Ruminococcaceae. Patients also showed signs of inflammation: myeloperoxidase, an inflammatory marker, was higher than in controls, while E-selectin was lower. The authors suggest that these gut changes may be linked to low-grade inflammation and to health problems associated with heavy drinking. However, the bacterial makeup did not significantly differ between admission and discharge, so the hospital stay did not clearly restore the gut bacteria within that time. This research suggests that gut bacteria and the substances they produce could one day be explored as targets for treating alcohol use disorder. The study was observational and involved only men, so it cannot show that alcohol directly caused these changes or that altering gut bacteria would improve treatment outcomes.
Thoen R, Longo L, Basso B, Rampelotto P, Sordi A, Kessler F, et al.. (2026). DYSBIOSIS OF GUT MICROBIOTA IN PATIENTS HOSPITALIZED FOR THE TREATMENT OF ALCOHOL USE DISORDER.. Arquivos de gastroenterologia. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0004-2803.24612025-144