A Metabolic Activity Recovery of the Intestinal Microbiota in the Patients with Bronchial Asthma

anaerobic indexbronchial asthmaGut Microbiotagut-lung axisimmune regulation

A Metabolic Activity Recovery of the Intestinal Microbiota in the Patients with Bronchial Asthma

Why this matters for your gut health

Bronchial asthma patients often show disrupted gut microbiota and reduced short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production, which is linked to skewed immune responses (Th2 polarization) and worsened inflammation. This study tests whether treating small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and/or giving probiotics can restore normal SCFA profiles — a potential adjunct approach to standard asthma therapy via the gut-lung axis.

Summary

30 patients with allergic bronchial asthma were tested for SIBO via hydrogen breath test. Those positive for SIBO (20) were split into two groups — one given the antibiotic Rifaximin alone, one given Rifaximin plus the probiotic Lactobalance. The 10 SIBO-negative patients received Lactobalance alone as part of standard therapy. Fecal SCFA profiles were measured before and after a month of treatment and compared to 17 healthy controls.

Key findings

SIBO-negative patients on probiotics alone showed significant increases in total SCFA, acetic acid, and butyric acid (p<0.001), plus decreased isoacids.
SIBO-positive patients given Rifaximin + Lactobalance showed a greater drop in isoacid ratio than those given Rifaximin alone (p<0.05).
After treatment, SCFA spectra and anaerobic index values in all groups became statistically indistinguishable from healthy controls (p>0.05).
Findings support a gut-lung axis role in asthma and suggest probiotic/antibiotic combination therapy can help normalize microbiota metabolic activity, though longer probiotic courses may be needed to fully reach reference SCFA levels.

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Citation

Ozimek, M., Ivashkin, V., Zolnikova, O., Potskherashvili, N., Ivashkin, K., Dzhakhaya, N., Kurbatova, A., Kryuchkova, K., & Zaborova, V. (2022). A Metabolic Activity Recovery of the Intestinal Microbiota in the Patients with Bronchial Asthma. Pulmonary Medicine, 2022, Article 9902438.