Gut Microbes · Mar 17, 2026

Parasutterella excrementihominis is associated with attenuated metabolic improvements during obesity therapy in humans

By Liu S, Schlicht K, Beckmann A et al.

Alterations in the composition and function of the gut microbiome are important in obesity and type 2 diabetes development. Using our cross-sectional FoCus cohort, we recently found Parasutterella species were increased in human obesity and type 2 diabetes and linked to abnormalities in triglyceride metabolism and L-cysteine homeostasis, the latter being important for beta-cell function. To gain further insights, we now quantified gut Parasutterella excrementihominis by qPCR in n = 215 human subjects during an interdisciplinary non-surgical obesity therapy program consisting of an initial weight-reduction phase (weeks 1-12) followed by a weight-maintenance phase (weeks 13-26). P. excrementihominis abundance was significantly reduced during the weight reduction phase. While baseline abundance levels did not predict the success of weight-reduction, they were inversely associated with C-reactive-protein improvements. Interestingly, the decrease in P. excrementihominis abundance during the weight reduction phase was positively correlated with improvements in insulin sensitivity throughout the overall obesity intervention. Regarding the weight maintenance phase, a re-increase of P. excrementihominis abundance was significantly associated with weight regain. In summary, our data suggest that P. excrementihominis attenuates metabolic and inflammatory improvements in obese human subjects under therapy and highlight a potential role of this bacterial species in metabolic adaptation during weight loss interventions.

doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2026.2644687Open accessPubMed 41845563Interventions