Current insights into the relationship between the gut microbiome and Sjögren’s syndrome

[1] (i.e., rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriatric arthritis and systemic sclerosis) are on their own also related to changes in the gut microbiome [4]. [...]their SS patient group is heterogeneous and not representative for the average pSS or sSS population in the United States or Europe [5]. Furthermore, B and T cell responses to the Ro60-protein occurred after monocolonization of mice with B. theta, subsequently leading to enhanced lupus-like disease in mice [11]. Because anti-Ro60 autoantibodies are observed in up to 70% of pSS patients, the findings of Greiling et al. [...]there is no evidence for an association between the presence of anti-Ro60 auto-antibodies in serum and B. theta relative abundance in fecal samples of pSS patients or patients with systemic lupus erythematosus [6, 11]. [...]there is currently more evidence supporting that a higher rather than a lower relative abundance of Bacteroides species is related to having pSS [1, 6, 9, 11]. Bacterial compositions on the ocular surface and in the oral cavity have been associated with pSS. [...]future studies should include not only gut, but also oral and ocular microbiome samples to obtain a complete picture of the microbiome – pSS connection [12].