Daily evidence update
Daily microbiome literature · 28 September 2026
Today's literature: 35 papers; 1 primary human intervention.
Additional human studies with results on a component were read, not shown.
4 animal and in-vitro studies read, not shown.
Pectin in older adults with frailty
A four-week randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial enrolled 31 older adults with frailty; 29 participants completed treatment with low-methoxy pectin or placebo. The pectin dose was not reported in the abstract. The repetition-count change was greater with pectin (2.07 ± 1.94 points versus 0.71 ± 2.27 points; p = 0.038), while Timed Up and Go performance did not change significantly. Anxiety and depression scores and several SF-36 domains improved, but effect estimates were not reported in the abstract; circulating inflammatory biomarkers did not differ significantly.
Microbiota-modifying interventions in colorectal cancer
A systematic review and network meta-analysis included 12 trials, all randomized and controlled, in adults with colorectal cancer. Probiotic doses, treatment durations and total participant count were not reported in the abstract. Pairwise analyses associated multistrain probiotics with less chemotherapy-related diarrhea (a 0.48-fold odds ratio; 95% CI 0.26–0.87) and reported a marginal result for nausea and vomiting (a 0.30-fold odds ratio; 95% CI 0.09–0.99). Network analysis was feasible only for diarrhea.
Dietary protein, gut bacteria and recovery after stroke
A registry-based cohort study analyzed 156 patients aged 65 years or older in post-stroke rehabilitation; 152 patients were included in the primary complete-case model. Observation duration and a prescribed protein dose were not reported in the abstract. The interaction between dietary protein density and the proportion of putative butyrate-producing bacteria was associated with motor activities-of-daily-living recovery (coefficient 0.046; 95% CI 0.013–0.079; p = 0.006). Similar associations were reported for other FIM-based outcomes, but not for handgrip strength or skeletal muscle mass index.