Evidence Hub

Impact of early life antibiotic and probiotic treatment on gut microbiome and resistome of very-low-birth-weight preterm infants

R. Kiu, Elizabeth M. Darby, Cristina Alcon-Giner, Antia Acuna-Gonzalez, Anny Camargo, Lisa E. Lamberte, Sarah Phillips, K. Sim et al.

bioRxiv, 2025

34 participants · 40 citations

Abstract

Preterm infants (300 metagenome- assembled genomes, and obtained ∼90 isolate genomes through targeted culturomics, enabling analysis of the microbiome/resistome at species and strain levels. Additionally, we investigated in vitro horizontal gene transfer (HGT) capacity of preterm infant-derived multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogen Enterococcus via neonatal gut models. Overall, probiotic supplementation significantly reduced antibiotic resistance gene prevalence, MDR pathogen load, and helped restore a typical early-life microbiota. However, the persistence of MDR pathogens like Enterococcus, with high HGT potential, highlights the need for ongoing surveillance in neonatal care. Our findings underscore the complex interactions between antibiotics, probiotics, and HGT in shaping the neonatal microbiome and support further research into probiotics for antimicrobial stewardship in preterm populations.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence. Reported size: 34 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free