ArticlePloS one2014
Blastocystis is associated with decrease of fecal microbiota protective bacteria: comparative analysis between patients with irritable bowel syndrome and control subjects.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 167 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in patients with diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International health · 2024Pooled it
- The role of Blastocystis sp. and Dientamoeba fragilis in irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Parasitology research · 2017Pooled it
- Blastocystis hominis infection inducing gut microbiome dysbiosis and aggravating Parkinson's disease symptoms: a case report.Journal of medical case reports · 2026Article
- Isolation and Characterization of a Biocontrol Serine Protease fromBiomolecules · 2026Article
- Review
- Commensal, pathogen, or passenger? Rethinking the role ofOne health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Crossing the species barrier: Bidirectional transmission ofOne health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Microbiota-A Rescuing Modulator in Children Struggling with Functional Constipation.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Improvement of the diagnosis of intestinal protozoa using a multiplex qPCR strategy compared to classical microscopy: a prospective study on 3,500 stool samples over 3 years.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2025Article
- Impact of Blastocystis carriage and colonization intensity on gut microbiota composition in a non-westernized rural population from Colombia.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Genetic diversity of single-celled microorganismCurrent research in microbial sciences · 2025Article
- Structure analysis of human gut microbiota associated with single-celled gut protists using Next-Generation Sequencing of 16S and 18S rRNA genes.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- A preliminary study of the association betweenFrontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Current status of intestinal parasitosis and microsporidiosis in industrialized countries: Results from a prospective study in France and Luxembourg.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- An Update onMicroorganisms · 2024Review
- C-reactive protein and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels in asymptomatic intestinal parasite carriers from urban and rural areas of Gabon.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome Associated with Blastocystis hominis or Without Relationship to It? A Case-Control Study and Minireview.Acta parasitologica · 2024Review
- Review
- Parasitosis byMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Prevalence and Association ofMicroorganisms · 2023Article
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Blastocystis is a protistan parasite living in the digestive tract of many animals, including humans. This highly prevalent intestinal parasite is suspected to be linked to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a chronic functional bowel disorder. Here, we first compared the prevalence of Blastocystis among 56 IBS patients (40 IBS with constipation (IBS-C), 9 IBS with diarrhea (IBS-D), 4 mixed IBS (IBS-M) and 3 unsubtyped IBS (IBS-U) according to the Rome III criteria) and 56 control (i.e. without any diagnosed chronic or acute gastrointestinal disorder) subjects. The highest prevalence of Blastocystis spp. was observed in the IBS group, but was only statistically significant in men (36.8% in the IBS group versus 4.8% in the control group). We then conducted a meta-analysis including epidemiological studies attempting to determine whether Blastocystis carriage could be linked to IBS, and highlighted that IBS patients had a relative risk of 2.34 to be infected by Blastocystis when compared to non-IBS subjects. We also looked for Dientamoeba fragilis, which is often associated with IBS, and identified this parasite only in some IBS patients (n = 6/56). Several studies provided evidence for a major role of the gut microbiota in the pathophysiology of IBS. Thus, we investigated the possible impact of Blastocystis carriage on the enteric bacterial community through quantification of 8 major bacterial groups from the enteric flora. Our data indicated that men with IBS-C had a significant decrease in Bifidobacterium sp. when infected by Blastocystis. Interestingly, in control subjects (i.e. without any gastrointestinal disorder) positive for Blastocystis, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which is known for its anti-inflammatory properties, was significantly decreased in men. Our results support the hypothesis that Blastocystis might be linked to the pathophysiology of IBS-C and intestinal flora imbalance.
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