Gut microbiome-based prediction of autoimmune neuroinflammation. Mus musculus strain:C57BL/6N

We found that the relative abundances of commensal taxa across distinct communities are poorly suited to assess the disease-mediating property of a given microbiota. Instead, the presence of certain microbial risk factors allowed us to determine the probability of severe disease, but failed to predict the individual disease course. We investigated multiple other microbiota-associated characteristics by applying 16S rRNA gene sequencing, metatranscriptomic and metabolomic approaches, as well as in-depth analysis of host immune responses and intestinal barrier integrity-associated readouts. In summary, our data suggest that common taxonomic analysis approaches should be refined by taxonomic network analyses or combined with microbiota function-related readouts to reliably assess disease predisposition of a given host-microbiota combination.