Fig. 1

Microbiota depletion worsens disease progression in the SOD1 mouse model. SOD1 mice were treated with low-dose antibiotics (Abx), co-housed with WT mice (CoHo), or untreated (H₂O), n = 11–13 per group. a Weight in SOD1 over time. b Neurologic score over time shows that ABX mice have a similar age of onset, but faster disease progression compared to untreated H2O, p ≤ 0.0001. c Area under the curve for cumulative neurologic score. d Motor performance by rotarod test over time, p ≤ 0.0001. e Area under the curve analysis shows that antibiotics worsen cumulative motor performance. Data represent mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM) for a–e. One-way ANOVA for panels c and e and two-way ANOVA for panels a, b, and d, with Dunnet’s test for multiple comparison. F Survival in SOD1 mice. Dotted line indicates median survival. Mantel–Cox Log-rank test comparison shows reduced survival by 18 days (p=0.0002) in SOD1-ABX (median survival 147 days) versus SOD1-H2O (median survival 165 days) mice. SOD1-CoHo did not significantly differ (median survival 172 days) vs. SOD1-H2O