ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1641185
Fibromyalgia diagnosis from a multiomics approach: a gut feeling
Provisionally accepted
Elena Durán-González*
Jorge Antolín Ramírez-Tejero
Marta Pérez SánchezCarmen Morales Torres
Rosa Gómez MoranoClaudia Díaz LópezAntonio Martínez LaraDavid Cotán Marín- Pronacera, Sevilla, Spain
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Background: Fibromyalgia is a complex disorder whose main symptoms are chronic widespread pain and fatigue and affects between 0.2 and 6.6% of the world population. Nowadays, there are no molecular biomarkers which could facilitate diagnosis. The latest efforts by the researchers have focused on studying problems at the level of central nervous system sensitivity, inflammatory and oxidative disorders. Methods: A total of 892 women were initially enrolled in the study. For those fulfilling inclusion criteria, a plasma proteome analysis in blood samples was conducted. Briefly, blood was collected, centrifuged and analyzed by liquid nano-chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. After the raw data analysis, proteins with statistically significant differential abundance and a fold change over 1.2 (20% increase in fibromyalgia compared with control samples) or under 0.8 (20% decrease in fibromyalgia compared with control samples) in fibromyalgia were selected. For fecal metagenome analysis, fecal samples were collected and processed for DNA extraction. Amplicon sequencing of V3–V4 regions from the 16S ribosomal RNA gene was performed using the Illumina MiSeq platform. The statistical analysis was conducted using R v4.3.2 base packages. Results: After applying exclusion criteria, 242 women (199 patients and 43 age- and environmentally paired controls ) provided plasma and feces samples, as well as properly filled health questionnaires. A total of 30 proteins and 19 taxa were differentially expressed in fibromyalgia patients, and its integration into an algorithm allows for discrimination between cases and controls. The multiomic approach for biomarker discovery in this study proposes a multifactorial connection between gut microbiota and mitochondria-derived oxidative stress and inflammation. Conclusions: Plasma and fecal multiomics analysis suggest an intricate and multifactorial connection between gut microbiota and mitochondria-derived oxidative stress and inflammation in FM patients, with glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and Streptococcus salivarius as leading actors.
Keywords: Fibromyalgia, diagnostic, Proteome, microbiome, Mitochondria
Received: 06 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Durán-González, Ramírez-Tejero, Pérez Sánchez, Morales Torres, Gómez Morano, Díaz López, Martínez Lara and Cotán Marín. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Elena Durán-González, Pronacera, Sevilla, Spain
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