Minerbi A, Gonzalez E, Brereton NJB, et al. - Given the challenges faced in diagnosing and treating fibromyalgia (FM), a prevalent syndrome characterized by chronic widespread pain, fatigue, and impaired sleep, researchers compared the microbiomes of 77 women with FM vs that of 79 control participants. They used 16S rRNA gene amplification and whole-genome sequencing for this work. FM patients and unrelated controls exhibited significant differences in several bacterial taxa. They identified this work being the first demonstrating gut microbiome alteration in nonvisceral pain. Variation in the composition of the microbiomes seems to due to FM-related variables more; this variation exhibited correlation with clinical indices of FM. In line with the observed butyrate-metabolizing species alteration, differences in the serum levels of butyrate and propionate were identified via targeted serum metabolite analysis in FM patients.