Crosstalk between the Ketogenic Diet and Epilepsy: From the Perspective of Gut Microbiota

Table 1

Main findings of studies on gut microbiota and epilepsy.

Subjects	Age	Population	Methodology	Findings	Year	Authors
Human	5-50 years old	Drug-resistant epilepsy (), drug-sensitive epilepsy (), and healthy control ().	16s rRNA-based metagenomics	An abnormally increased abundance of rare flora. Bifidobacteria↑ and Lactobacillus↑ in patients with fewer seizures (no more than 4 seizures per year).	2018	Peng et al. [62]
Sprague-Dawley rats	45 days old	Chronic-stressed rats and sham-stressedrats.	Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to recipients, in which commensal microbiota had been depleted by antibiotics	Perturbations in the gut microbiome, particularly those associated with chronic stress, in those with increased susceptibility to epilepsy.	2018	Medel-Matus et al. [63]
Human	22 years old	A girl with Crohn’s disease (CD) and a 17-year history of epilepsy.	Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT)	FMT achieved remission of intestinal and neurological symptoms in a girl with CD and a 17-year history of epilepsy. The finding inspires a novel treatment for epilepsy through remodeling of the gut microbiome.	2017	He et al. [64]
Human	10-16 years old	Six patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.	Antibiotic treatments	Patients attained temporary seizure freedom during antibiotic treatment.	2018	Braakman and van Ingen [65]
Human	Mean age 44 years old	45 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.	Probiotic treatments	28.9% of all patients displayed a greater than 50% reduction in the number of seizures. A significant improvement was observed in patients’ quality of life. Probiotics may be an option for supplementary therapy.	2018	Gomez-Eguilaz et al. [66]