Divine Aleru, Microbiome Signatures Research Coordinator

This review links prenatal chemical exposures to perinatal depression and anxiety through microbiome disruption and neuroinflammation. Environmental chemicals alter the gut-brain axis, emphasizing the need for integrative, preventative maternal mental health strategies.

This study demonstrates significant associations between prenatal traffic-related air pollution exposure and postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms, highlighting increased vulnerability among women with hypertensive pregnancy disorders. Findings support integrating environmental health assessments into postpartum mental health strategies.

This review highlights how gut microbiota disruptions contribute to postpartum depression via hormonal, inflammatory, and neurochemical pathways. It supports microbial modulation as a novel, noninvasive treatment strategy.

This review explores how deficiencies or imbalances in zinc, magnesium, iron, and copper contribute to postpartum depression. It supports trace element supplementation as a nonpharmacologic treatment strategy and calls for further research to solidify clinical protocols and explore microbiome interactions.

This study identifies significant barriers preventing women from seeking help for postpartum depression, notably stigma and socio-cultural factors. Active help-seeking behaviors significantly increase diagnosis rates, highlighting the importance of mental health education and stigma-reduction efforts, especially among Pacific Islander women and those with intended pregnancies.

This review emphasizes peripartum depression as distinct from general depression, featuring pronounced anxiety, psychomotor symptoms, and obsessive thoughts, urging expanded diagnostic criteria to cover the full peripartum year and specific maternal symptomatology, crucial for improved diagnosis and tailored intervention.

This review explores women’s experiences with psychological treatments for postpartum depression, emphasizing the importance of personalized care, supportive relationships, and social support systems. It highlights the positive outcomes of treatments like BT and home visits, while stressing the need for flexibility and empathy in treatment delivery.

This review examines how cultural factors influence postpartum depression, identifying both protective and harmful cultural practices. It emphasizes the need for culturally sensitive care and highlights the role of social support systems in mitigating depressive symptoms.

This umbrella review synthesizes research on postpartum depression risk factors, highlighting prenatal depression and current abuse as the strongest predictors. It emphasizes the need for targeted screening and early intervention to improve maternal health and outcomes for both mothers and their children.

This review analyzes the risk factors for postpartum depression (PD), highlighting key predictors such as a history of depression, lack of support, gestational diabetes, and birth complications. It calls for early screening and targeted interventions to address PD and mitigate its long-term effects on mothers and children.

This comprehensive review of postpartum depression (PD) explores its pathophysiology, risk factors, and treatment options. It emphasizes the need for early diagnosis, multidisciplinary care, and further research into the neurobiological causes of PD to improve prevention and treatment strategies.

This review examines the prevalence and risk factors of postpartum depression in Vietnam, highlighting significant socio-economic, cultural, and personal contributors. It calls for early screening and more comprehensive support for mothers, especially in rural areas.

This systematic review examines postpartum depression in Arab countries, revealing varying prevalence rates and highlighting socio-economic, marital, and health-related factors as major risk predictors. It advocates for routine screening and culturally sensitive interventions to address PD effectively.

This review explores the prevalence of postpartum depression (PD) among African mothers, highlighting significant variation across countries and the need for culturally validated diagnostic tools to improve screening and treatment in postpartum care.

Postpartum depression (PD) affects many new mothers, influencing emotional, mental, and physical well-being. The gut microbiome, hormones, diet, and exercise all play a significant role in the onset, severity, and management of PD. Early intervention, including probiotics, dietary changes, and therapy, can effectively alleviate symptoms and improve maternal and child health outcomes.

Probiotics have emerged as a promising microbiome-targeted intervention (BTI) for vulvovaginal candidiasis (VC), addressing both microbial imbalances and the host’s immunological and inflammatory mechanisms. By restoring a healthy Lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota, probiotics directly counteract dysbiosis linked to VC, while their bioactive metabolites such as lactic acid and bacteriocins suppress Candida overgrowth and modulate local immune […]

This review discusses vaginal microbiota imbalance in vulvovaginal candidiasis and evaluates probiotics, postbiotics, synbiotics, and vaginal microbiota transplantation as novel treatments to improve outcomes and reduce antifungal resistance.

The study showed Candida albicans can resist and efficiently biosorb heavy metals, especially chromium, from contaminated water and soil. Optimal removal depends on pH, temperature, biomass state, and carbon source, highlighting C. albicans as a promising bioremediation agent for heavy metal pollution.

This review examines metal nanoparticles as innovative antifungal agents against Candida albicans. It highlights their multi-target actions, synergistic potential with antifungal drugs, and drug delivery benefits while emphasizing the need for further safety studies and clinical validation to combat resistance and biofilm-related infections.

This study explored AGINNE®, a Lactobacillus fermentation broth, showing strong anti-Candida and anti-inflammatory effects in mice with VC. It enhanced microbiome health and reduced proinflammatory cytokines, highlighting a promising probiotic alternative to antifungal drugs.

This review assesses management strategies for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis, highlighting the limitations of current antifungal treatments, rising resistance concerns, and potential novel therapies. Emphasis is placed on accurate diagnostics, microbiome considerations, and individualized treatment approaches to improve patient outcomes.

This review clarifies mechanisms behind vulvovaginal candidiasis, emphasizing candidalysin-driven inflammation, microbiome complexity, and the potential of inflammasome-targeted therapies. It highlights Candida albicans’ dominance, underscores mixed roles for Lactobacillus, and suggests personalized treatments and vaccine strategies as essential future directions in managing VC.

This review clarifies the role of vaginal microbiota in health and recurrent infections, highlighting Lactobacillus complexity, pathogen interactions, and the need for personalized diagnostic and treatment approaches. It calls for deeper exploration into fungal and parasitic vaginal microbiome components to enhance understanding and clinical care of recurrent vulvovaginal infections.

This contemporary survey validates historical data on VC/VVC prevalence, identifying common symptoms, risk factors, and treatment outcomes. It highlights antibiotics as a major risk factor and emphasizes the superior efficacy of physician-managed care compared to self-treatment, reinforcing the need for ongoing improvements in management strategies.

This review consolidates current knowledge on vulvovaginal candidosis, highlighting Candida albicans virulence factors, diagnostic challenges, and the need for precise clinical differentiation between colonization and infection. It advocates for microbiome-informed diagnostics, improved management strategies, and future research into antifungal resistance and novel therapeutic options.

Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VC) is a common fungal infection caused by Candida albicans. Disruptions in the vaginal microbiome and immune responses contribute to its development. Effective treatment involves both antifungal therapy and strategies to restore microbiome balance, preventing recurrent infections and addressing emerging antifungal resistance.

This review highlights the role of diet and micronutrients in modulating MS symptoms, showing potential benefits of calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and B vitamins, while emphasizing the need for personalized nutritional approaches and further microbiome-focused research.

This study found that adherence to the Traditional South China Diet, rich in rice and animal proteins, is linked to reduced premenstrual disorders. Dietary patterns may influence MD symptoms, suggesting the potential for tailored nutrition and microbiome-targeted therapies in management.

MS and MDD stem from neuroendocrine and neurochemical imbalances, especially altered allopregnanolone and ABA activity. Hormonal and neuroactive therapies improve symptoms, while microbiome and neuroinflammation represent promising research areas.

Management of comorbid MDD and bipolar disorder requires mood stabilization first, cautious use of antidepressants, hormonal therapy, and adjunctive psychotherapy. Evidence is limited, highlighting the need for personalized, multidisciplinary care and further research.

This review identifies impaired sensitivity of ABA-A receptors to the neurosteroid allopregnanolone as central to MDD, linking receptor plasticity and stress dysregulation to mood symptoms, and highlights promising treatments targeting this pathway.

This study identified specific gut microbiota alterations, including reduced butyrate- and ABA-producing bacteria, associated with premenstrual disorder severity, offering new insights into MD pathophysiology and potential microbiome-targeted treatments.

Among Ethiopian female university students, MDD affects nearly two-thirds and links strongly to severe menstrual pain, irregular cycles, low social support, and contraceptive use. Early identification and comprehensive care are essential to alleviate its academic and psychological impacts.

Among Ethiopian high school girls, MDD affects one-third, linked to irregular cycles, depression, prolonged menstruation, and stress. Early screening and mental health support are crucial to improving well-being and academic success.

Hungarian women with probable MDD experience high rates of anxio-depressive symptoms and reduced well-being. Retrospective screening suggests higher-than-expected prevalence, highlighting the need for better diagnostic tools and tailored treatment to address this underrecognized disorder.

What was reviewed?This paper reviewed the neurological basis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (MDD), emphasizing its recognition as a distinct mood disorder linked to menstrual cycle hormonal fluctuations. It summarized advances in brain imaging and neurophysiological studies demonstrating altered brain function in MDD patients, particularly in prefrontal cortex regions involved in executive function and emotion regulation. […]

Women with MS/MDD experience disrupted biological rhythms, notably lower melatonin, higher nighttime temperature, and poor sleep quality. These circadian disturbances contribute to symptom severity, suggesting chronobiological targets for improved diagnosis and treatment.

This review delineates MDD’s unique neurobiology, highlighting hormone sensitivity, ABAergic dysfunction, and stress interaction. SRIs provide rapid symptom relief, with hormonal and behavioral therapies complementing care. It emphasizes precise diagnosis and individualized, multidisciplinary treatment to improve outcomes in this debilitating disorder.

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (MDD) significantly impairs women’s lives due to abnormal sensitivity to hormonal fluctuations. Accurate diagnosis relies on prospective symptom tracking. Evidence supports SRIs and hormonal treatments as effective management strategies. Emerging therapies and multidisciplinary care models promise improved outcomes for this complex and under-recognized disorder.

Symptom-onset dosing of sertraline effectively reduces MDD symptoms, especially mood-related ones, with fewer side effects and limited drug exposure. This targeted approach offers a promising, patient-friendly alternative to continuous SRI treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

This meta-analysis identifies a significant association between smoking and increased risk of MS and MDD. Women who smoke are more likely to experience these disorders, with stronger effects in MDD.

This study highlights the significant link between tobacco consumption and the increased risk of premenstrual syndrome (MS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (MDD). Women who smoke are at higher odds of developing these disorders, with a dose-response relationship.

This study explores the gut microbiota in Japanese women with Premenstrual Syndrome (MS), finding significant differences in microbial composition and highlighting the potential role of Collinsella in MS pathophysiology.

This study explores the association between gut microbiota composition and the severity of premenstrual symptoms, suggesting a potential role for microbiome-based therapies in managing MS.

This systematic review and meta-analysis estimate the global prevalence of MS, revealing wide variations across countries and highlighting the need for standardized diagnostic approaches.

This systematic review and meta-analysis explores the effectiveness of herbal medicine and nutritional supplements in reducing MS symptoms, highlighting significant reductions in physical, mood, and behavioral symptoms.

This narrative review explores how exercise can help manage the symptoms of Premenstrual Syndrome (MS), focusing on the physiological and psychological benefits of regular physical activity.

This review examines the latest insights into the etiology and treatment of Premenstrual Syndrome (MS) and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (MDD), focusing on hormonal and neurosteroid imbalances.

This review explores premenstrual syndrome (MS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (MDD), focusing on symptoms, prevalence, risk factors, and treatment options.

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (MDD) is a severe mood disorder linked to hormonal and neurochemical changes. Emerging research highlights the gut microbiome’s role in symptom modulation, opening new avenues for microbiome-targeted treatments alongside traditional therapies.

Premenstrual Syndrome (MS) involves physical and emotional symptoms linked to hormonal fluctuations. Recent research highlights the role of heavy metals and gut microbiome imbalances in worsening these symptoms. Lifestyle changes, microbiome-targeted therapies, and toxin reduction show promise in effective MS management.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that offer significant health benefits when administered in adequate amounts. They primarily work by modulating the gut microbiome, supporting a balanced microbial ecosystem. Probiotics have been shown to improve gut health, modulate immune responses, and even influence metabolic and mental health disorders. With growing evidence supporting their therapeutic potential, probiotics are increasingly recognized for their role in treating conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (BS), antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AD), and even mental health conditions like depression and anxiety through their impact on the gut-brain axis.

Ginger essential oil and citral significantly reduce atherosclerotic plaques, inflammation, and harmful MAO production by modulating gut microbiota, highlighting their therapeutic potential in managing cardiovascular diseases through dietary intervention.

This review explores how essential oils and nanoparticles modulate gut microbiota, highlighting beneficial effects of oils like d-limonene and risks from nanoparticles such as silver and titanium dioxide. It emphasizes their therapeutic potential and concerns regarding gut microbiome health and systemic inflammatory impacts.

Essential oils from savory, parsley, and rosemary beneficially alter gut microbiota, reduce harmful metabolites like MAO, enhance beneficial CFAs, and significantly lower inflammatory and oxidative stress markers, highlighting their potential as nutraceutical interventions for ischemic heart disease and type-2 diabetes mellitus management.

This review explores essential oils as alternative treatments in dentistry, highlighting their efficacy against major oral pathogens. Findings emphasize their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antifungal properties, supporting their use against oral diseases like periodontitis, dental caries, and oral candidiasis.

This review outlines how the microbiota shapes immunity, from early-life development to systemic responses, highlighting keystone species like FB and Barnesiella. It underscores therapeutic potentials in infection control and immunotherapy.

This study shows how essential oils improve broiler gut health, boost growth, and reshape microbiota, offering a natural antibiotic alternative.

What was reviewed?This review systematically evaluated the role of essential oils (Os) in improving broiler chickens’ health, gut microbiota, and production outcomes. By analyzing 158 publications, it explored the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and growth-promoting properties of Os sourced from a wide range of plants such as Origanum, Cymbopogon, Citrus, and Eucalyptus. The focus was on how […]

Boric acid is a powerful agent that not only treats infections like VC, V, and Trichomoniasis but also plays a key role in modulating the microbiome. By promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus, it helps restore microbial balance in various areas of the body, including the vagina, mouth, and skin, making it a versatile tool in microbiome-targeted therapy.

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluate the effectiveness of boric acid as a local drug delivery agent in treating periodontitis, highlighting its positive impact on periodontal health, particularly in probing pocket depth and clinical attachment level.

This review discusses the effectiveness of boric acid vaginal suppositories in treating azole-resistant vaginitis, including its benefits and limitations.

What was studied?This study investigated the in vitro efficacy of boric acid as an antiseptic agent against Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from diabetic foot infections. The research aimed to determine whether boric acid could serve as a viable alternative for local wound treatment, particularly given the rising issue of antibiotic resistance in diabetic foot infections. […]

This review analyzes clindamycin’s evidence-based use in infections, its anti-toxin benefits, and microbiome risks, especially C. difficile impact.

This review details clindamycin’s anti-inflammatory role in acne, showing its impact on C. acnes, cytokines, and immune responses beyond bacterial suppression.

What Was This review paper focuses on the scientific rationale and clinical basis for using clindamycin in treating dermatologic diseases. It details clindamycin’s antibacterial and anti-inflammatory roles, particularly its established use in acne vulgaris, folliculitis, rosacea, hidradenitis suppurativa (S), and staphylococcal infections. The authors also explore its mechanism of action, highlighting how clindamycin inhibits bacterial […]

Clindamycin is an antibiotic commonly used to treat a variety of bacterial infections, including skin, bone, joint infections, and bacterial vaginosis. Known for its ability to target Gram-positive bacteria and anaerobes, Clindamycin disrupts protein synthesis in bacteria, halting their growth. While highly effective, its impact on the gut microbiome and the potential for Clostridium difficile infections make it essential to use with caution in certain populations.

This study shows that oral probiotics significantly boost cure rates of bacterial vaginosis when used with tinidazole, restoring a healthy vaginal microbiome.

This review evaluates tinidazole’s antibacterial efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and clinical utility in anaerobic infections, highlighting its broad-spectrum activity and potential microbiome implications.

Tinidazole is a nitroimidazole antimicrobial that selectively targets anaerobic bacteria and protozoa, reshaping the gut ecosystem by depleting pathogenic anaerobes while preserving commensals. Clinically validated for giardiasis, bacterial vaginosis, and colorectal surgery prophylaxis. Its NA-disrupting and biofilm-penetrating actions reduce inflammatory triggers and create niches for healthy microbiota to rebound.

Synbiotics restore gut microbiome balance in COS, improving insulin sensitivity, reducing inflammation, and normalizing androgen levels. This validation reinforces its role as a microbiome-targeted intervention.

Probiotic supplementation addresses microbial dysbiosis and inflammatory processes in COS, improving metabolic and hormonal outcomes, thereby validating its role as an BTI.

Statins target both microbial imbalances and inflammatory mechanisms in COS. By improving gut microbial composition and metabolic parameters, statins validate the microbiome signature of COS and enhance fertility and metabolic health outcomes.

Resistant dextrin targets both metabolic and microbial imbalances in COS. It reduces fasting blood glucose, lipids, and androgens, while improving microbial composition, supporting its role as a microbiome-targeted intervention (BTI) for COS-related infertility and metabolic health.

Metformin targets both the microbiome and inflammatory mechanisms in COS, improving insulin sensitivity, reducing hyperandrogenism, and restoring ovulation. Its microbial effects validate the condition’s microbiome signature, making it a promising microbiome-targeted intervention for managing infertility in COS.

This review discusses the role of metformin in treating COS-related infertility. It highlights its effectiveness in improving ovulation, reducing insulin resistance, and managing hyperandrogenism. Metformin is recommended as a first-line treatment for non-obese women with COS-related infertility, with benefits also seen in VF and metabolic health.

This review examines the role of metformin in treating COS-related infertility, highlighting its effectiveness in improving insulin sensitivity, reducing hyperandrogenism, and restoring ovulation. Metformin serves as a first-line therapy, offering significant benefits for women with anovulatory infertility due to COS.

This review highlights the potential benefits of statin therapy in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (COS), showing improvements in metabolic dysfunction, hyperandrogenism, and cardiovascular risk factors. Statins may offer a dual benefit for COS management, though further research is needed for long-term clinical outcomes.

The study explored intermittent clomiphene citrate treatment (CT) for women with COS who were resistant to standard C treatment. CT showed an 80.8% response rate, offering an effective and safer alternative to gonadotropin therapy with no risk of HSS or multiple pregnancies.

Curcumin, a polyphenolic compound derived from Curcuma longa, and fecal microbiota transplant (MT) have shown promise in treating polycystic ovary syndrome (COS), a condition often linked with gut dysbiosis. MT, which restores a balanced microbiome, has been proposed as a strategy to alleviate symptoms of COS by modulating microbial composition and reducing inflammation.[1] Curcumin’s anti-inflammatory […]

COS is linked with higher gut inflammation, as shown by elevated fecal calprotectin. This may help guide diagnosis and treatment.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (COS) is a common endocrine disorder that affects women of reproductive age, characterized by irregular menstrual cycles, hyperandrogenism, and insulin resistance. It is often associated with metabolic dysfunctions and inflammation, leading to fertility issues and increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The study evaluates the efficacy of Irosustat, TX140, and compound 1G as alternative treatments for COS, showing improvements in metabolic and hormonal profiles, with promising results on oxidative stress and inflammation markers. These compounds offer potential advantages over current COS therapies like metformin.

This study identifies potential drug targets for COS, focusing on genes involved in insulin resistance and hormone signaling pathways. Findings could help develop more targeted treatments.

This study compared the effects of myo-inositol and metformin on insulin resistance, menstrual cycle regularity, and hyperandrogenism in women with COS. Both therapies were effective, with fewer side effects noted for myo-inositol.

This study explores the use of berberine in combination with other drugs for treating COS, highlighting its effects on insulin resistance, androgen excess, and metabolic dysfunction.

What was studied?This study investigated the potential of repurposing DA-approved drugs to treat Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (COS). Using bioinformatics tools, the authors analyzed protein-protein interactions (PIs) related to COS and explored how certain drugs could interact with these proteins to potentially mitigate the pathogenesis of the disorder. The analysis particularly focused on identifying crucial molecules […]

What was studied?This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial studied the effects of probiotic supplementation on pancreatic β-cell function and C-reactive protein (RP) levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (COS). The aim was to explore how probiotics might influence insulin sensitivity, metabolic parameters, and inflammation markers in COS, which is often associated with insulin resistance, […]

This randomized trial evaluates the effects of synbiotic supplementation on hormonal, inflammatory, and metabolic parameters in women with COS. It shows significant improvements in androgen levels, insulin sensitivity, and inflammation.

This review examines the link between COS and gut microbiota dysbiosis, highlighting how dietary and microbial interventions may improve clinical outcomes. The study underscores the potential of prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics as treatments.

This study demonstrates that resistant dextrin supplementation can improve metabolic and endocrine parameters in women with COS, offering a promising alternative to traditional therapies.

This review proposes a combination of fecal microbiota transplantation (MT) and curcumin as a potential treatment for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (COS). The hypothesis suggests these therapies could restore gut eubiosis, reduce inflammation, and improve metabolic dysfunction in COS patients.

This study evaluates the therapeutic potential of fecal microbiota transplantation (MT) for treating female reproductive tract diseases, including COS, by restoring microbiota balance.

This systematic review links heavy metal exposure and trace element deficiencies to oxidative stress, inflammation, and hormonal imbalance in COS, with implications for metabolic dysfunction and gut microbiome disruption.

This study links elevated arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury levels to oxidative stress and low antioxidant defenses in COS patients, highlighting heavy metal toxicity as a key contributor to endocrine dysfunction and microbiome imbalance.

This case–control study links high copper and low molybdenum levels to metabolic, hormonal, and inflammatory changes in COS. Dietary habits influenced these levels, suggesting potential for targeted nutritional interventions.

This study found that women with COS had elevated cadmium, antimony, lead, and mercury levels, alongside reduced zinc and copper. These imbalances correlated with insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and inflammation, suggesting that metal exposure contributes to COS pathogenesis and potentially alters the gut microbiome.

This study revealed elevated serum copper and zinc, and reduced manganese and lead, in women with COS, suggesting trace element dysregulation may fuel oxidative stress and hormonal imbalance. These imbalances may also impact gut microbiota and insulin resistance.

This study shows women with COS have elevated blood lead and cadmium and reduced magnesium, calcium, and manganese—disrupting hormone levels through oxidative stress and possibly altering gut microbiota.

This meta-analysis confirms that serum copper levels are significantly elevated in women with COS. Copper may drive hormonal imbalance and oxidative stress, and could influence gut microbiota, highlighting its potential as a biomarker and therapeutic target in COS management.