Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are prevalent neurobiological conditions with complicated causes worldwide. Increasing researcher awareness of ASD and accumulated evidence suggest that the development of ASD may be strongly linked to the
dysbiosis of the gut microbiota. In addition, most of the current studies have compared autistic children and neurotypical children or have compared ASD patients before and after
antibiotic treatment. Treatment of
autism with
traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has increasingly been promoted, but the relationship between its efficacy and intestinal flora has rarely been reported. Under the premise that treatment with the TCM
BuYang HuanWu Tang is effective, we conducted a comparative bioinformatics analysis to identify the overall changes in gut microbiota in relation to ASD by comparing the intestinal flora before and
after treatment with TCM and contrasting the intestinal flora with that of healthy controls. At the phylum level, Proteobacteria showed a significant increase in children with ASD, which may be a signature of
dysbiosis in the gut microbiota. At the genus level, Blautia, Coprococcus 1, the Lachnospiraceae family, and the Ruminococcaceae family were found at the lowest levels of relative abundance in children with ASD, whereas the abundances of Escherichia-Shigella, Klebsiella, and Flavonifractor were significantly increased compared with those in the healthy control group. In sum, this study characterized the alterations of the intestinal microbiome in children with ASD and its normalization after TCM treatment (TCMT), which may provide novel insights into the diagnosis and
therapy of ASD.