A child with cerebral palsy microbiome

This is an analysis using a standard flow that I tend to use… The analysis was done using data from Thryve and uploaded to Microbiome Prescription.

Microbiome Functional Abnormalities

With the recent addition of KEGG information, my focus has shifted from a naive “this bacteria is too high or too low” to this enzyme or end-product is too high or too low. Why? Bacteria can substitute for each other.

Consider building a wall on a house. If you grow up in the US. Northwest, it will be 90% wood and 10% gypsum board. But walls may be built with steel framing, concrete siding, bricks, stones, logs, concrete blocks etc. Is a wall not built of 90% wood unsafe? No, the question should be how does the wall function for structure strength, insulation etc. It is the same with bacteria.

Three Functional Checks

We use the three items are at the bottom of Changing Your Microbiome


End Product Abnormalities

At this point, the reader should copy and google information about each end product.

  • “Indole may act as an interspecies signaling compound.” [src] translation: the bacteria internet is flaky
  • Biogenic amines – these are neurotransmitters
  • Bacteriocin: Lasso peptide – “It has varieties of biological activities, among which the most important one is its antibacterial efficacy.” [src] in other words is suppresses other bacteria

So the story appears to be bad communications between bacteria and the microbiome being bias towards those that tolerate the natural antibioitic, Bacteriocin: Lasso peptide.

Clicking thru to the bacteria involved, we find that the antibiotic effect is due to one bacteria, shown below. The Indole appears to be due to low Alistipes level (most common source, and has a low value)

Source for Biogenic amines and Bacteriocin: Lasso peptide
KEGG Enzyme Outliers

I dropped filtering to 90% and only the enzymes show issue.

Core Supplements

The purpose of this is to identify items that may compensate for low amounts. There were none.

There are no significant lows ( < 25% of Median) and we note two high items: GABA and DAO

Predicted Symptoms

There was only one item that had strong likelihood:

 Impaired Memory & concentration|Neurological-Vision: Blurred Vision|

Pub Med Microbiome Reports

Cerebral palsy is not in my existing list of medical conditions, so I did a pub med search and found just two studies.

Distinct Gut Microbiota Composition and Functional Category in Children With Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy [2019]With Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy [2019]

“The increased risk of “Neurodegenerative diseases” in CPE patients was probably attributed to Streptococcus, Parabacteroides, and Bacteroides ” [2019]

I added CP to the database with the bacteria shifts reported. And then ran for matches to the reported patterns

Values in top or bottom 9%. A good match for PubMed report

The top results for probiotics are shown below

In terms of diet additions:

As well as:

Vitamin D, Blackberries, Limes, Oranges are in the Flavonoids list

And diet avoidance

We note that some species of lactobacillus are on the to take and others to avoid. Different species produce different bacteriocins (natural antibiotics against other bacteria)

Bottom Line

The above changes will likely have a positive impact and should slow neurodegeneration. As always, these suggestions should be review by knowledgeable medical professional before starting. These are machine learning suggestions that is blinkered in terms of factors considered.

1 thought on “A child with cerebral palsy microbiome

  1. Antibiotic treatment during pregnancy is widespread in Western countries, and accounts for 80 % of prescribed medications in pregnancy. However, antibiotic treatment, while at times lifesaving, can also have detrimental consequences. A single course of antibiotics perturbs bacterial communities, with evidence that the microbial ecosystem does not return completely to baseline following treatment. Antibiotics in pregnancy should be used only when indicated, choosing those with the narrowest range possible. Bacteria are essential for normal human development and, while antibiotic treatment during pregnancy has an important role in controlling and preventing infections, it may have undesired effects regarding the maternal and fetoplacental microbiomes. We expect that microbiota manipulation in pregnancy, through the use of probiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation, will be the subject of increasing clinical interest.

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