Sulfated dietary fiber protects gut microbiota from antibiotics
Name
40168_2025_Article_2176.pdf
Size
2.71 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
bb39d1fecbbbc325c08a379a82379036
Author(s)
Wu, Fuqing
Yu, Xiaoqian A.
Angeles-Albores, David
Erdman, Susan E.
Alm, Eric J.
Date Issued
August 6, 2025
Journal
Microbiome
Publisher
BioMed Central
Citation
Wu, F., Yu, X.A., Angeles-Albores, D. et al. Sulfated dietary fiber protects gut microbiota from antibiotics. Microbiome 13, 183 (2025).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Background Antibiotics, while essential for combating pathogens, also disrupt commensal bacteria, leading to gut microbiota imbalance and associated diseases. However, strategies to mitigate such collateral damage remain largely underexplored. Result In this study, we found that fucoidan, a marine polysaccharide derived from brown seaweed, provides broad-spectrum growth protection against multiple classes of antibiotics for human gut microbial isolates in vitro and for fecal communities ex vivo. This protective effect is dependent on the structural integrity, molecular weight, and sulfur content of the polysaccharide. Transcriptomic analysis showed that while fucoidan had minimal impact on baseline gene expression, it counteracted about 60% of the genes induced by kanamycin, suggesting a potential inhibition of kanamycin. Mass spectrometry results further showed that this inhibition may be due to the non-specific binding of fucoidan to kanamycin in solution. Finally, animal model experiments revealed that fucoidan facilitated the recovery of gut microbes following antibiotic treatment in vivo. Conclusion These findings suggest fucoidan could serve as a potential intervention to help protect gut microbiota during antibiotic therapy. Further studies are needed to evaluate its clinical potential and ensure it does not compromise antimicrobial efficacy. Video Abstract
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Division of Comparative Medicine
Singapore-MIT Alliance in Research and Technology (SMART)
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-025-02176-w
