ArticleNature communications2025
Impact of early life antibiotic and probiotic treatment on gut microbiome and resistome of very-low-birth-weight preterm infants.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Influence of probiotics on faecal antibiotic resistome in neonates: a systematic review.Pediatric research · 2026Pooled it
- Review
- Early antibiotic exposure and vaccine immune responses in preterm infants: potential sex-specific differences.Gut microbes · 2026Observational
- Gut microbiota alterations in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit extremely preterm infants: a Chinese tertiary center study.Translational pediatrics · 2026Article
- Human milk microbiome as a modulator of the early-life gut-brain axis: mechanisms and translational opportunities for neurodevelopment.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Self-reconstruction of single copper atoms drives precise hydroxyl radicals generation for efficient water disinfection.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Computational Genomics for Resistome Characterization: Current Advancements and Future Challenges Under a One Health Perspective.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Energy-assisted CRISPR cleavage and probiotic vesicle signaling platform: Microbiome reprogramming for homeostasis.Science advances · 2026Article
- Current Evidence, Controversies, and the Future of Biotics in the Prevention of Necrotizing Enterocolitis: A Narrative Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Antibiotic-Driven Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis: Resistome Dynamics, Metabolic Disruption, and Paths to Restoration.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Profiling the gut resistome to unlock antimicrobial resistance biology and inform clinical risk.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Metabolic reprogramming of the infant gut by bifidobacteria-based probiotics drives exclusion of antibiotic-resistant pathobionts.Cell reports. Medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Does genetic susceptibility play a role in necrotizing enterocolitis?Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Relationship between gut microbiota establishment patterns and the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants: a retrospective cohort study.Translational pediatrics · 2026Article
- Review of the biological gap between mother's own milk and pasteurized donor milk: implications for intestinal health in preterm infants.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- A One Health Decalogue for Breastfeeding: Microbiota-Targeted Strategies for Infant Gastrointestinal and Neurodevelopmental Health.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Tracing the early bacterial settlers in preterm and very-low birth-weight infants: first report of microbiota dynamics in South American neonates.Infection and immunity · 2026Article
- Predicting macrosomia and low birth weight with interpretable machine learning.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Institutional Practices Drive Antibiotic Variability in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: Baseline Evidence to Inform National Stewardship Interventions in Oman.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Preterm infants (<37 weeks' gestation) are commonly given broad-spectrum antibiotics due to their risk of severe conditions like necrotising enterocolitis and sepsis. However, antibiotics can disrupt early-life gut microbiota development, potentially impairing gut immunity and colonisation resistance. Probiotics (e.g., certain Bifidobacterium strains) may help restore a healthy gut microbiota. In this study, we investigated the effects of probiotics and antibiotics on the gut microbiome and resistome in two unique cohorts of 34 very-low-birth-weight, human-milk-fed preterm infants - one of which received probiotics. Within each group, some infants received antibiotics (benzylpenicillin and/or gentamicin), while others did not. Using shotgun metagenomic sequencing on 92 longitudinal faecal samples, we reconstructed >300 metagenome-assembled genomes and obtained ~90 isolate genomes via targeted culturomics, allowing strain-level analysis. We also assessed ex vivo horizontal gene transfer (HGT) capacity of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Enterococcus using neonatal gut models. Here we show that probiotic supplementation significantly reduced antibiotic resistance gene prevalence, MDR pathogen load, and restored typical early-life microbiota profile. However, persistent MDR pathogens like Enterococcus, with high HGT potential, underscore the need for continued surveillance. Our findings underscore the complex interplay between antibiotics, probiotics, and HGT in shaping the neonatal microbiome and support further research into probiotics for antimicrobial stewardship in preterm populations.
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