Compositions comprising bacterial strains

A method of treating a condition mediated by the Th17 pathway in a subject in need thereof, comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a pharmaceutical composition that comprises a bacteria strain of the genus Bacteroides;

• wherein the administering is effective to produce a decrease in production of at least one pro-inflammatory cytokine in the subject, thereby treating the condition mediated by the Th17 pathway in the subject;
• and
• wherein the bacteria strain is lyophilized;
• wherein the pharmaceutical composition optionally further comprises a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, diluent, or carrier;
• wherein the therapeutically effective amount of the bacteria strain comprises from about 1×103 to about 1×1011 CFU/g of the bacteria strain with respect to total weight of the pharmaceutical composition;
• and
• wherein the bacteria strain comprises a polynucleotide sequence of a 16S rRNA gene that has at least 95% sequence identity to the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:4, as determined by a Smith-Waterman homology search algorithm using an affine gap search with a gap open penalty of 12, a gap extension penalty of 2, and a Blocks Substitution Matrix (BLOSUM) of 62.