Interesting article that continues the discussion of redeveloping our medical diagnostic and treatment paradigm to include dysbiosis. Technologies such a multiplexing assays give us the ability to quickly gauge the absence or presence of certain complexes that create an environment for disease. Additionally, the introduction of new vocabulary is essential to further discussions and analysis outside of the traditional medical paradigms.
Microbiota Transfer Therapy alters gut ecosystem and improves gastrointestinal and autism symptoms: an open-label study
New research suggests a link between the microbiome and autism spectrum disorder. Using a protocol that involved a fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) resulted in an improvement in both gastrointestinal symptoms but also behavioral improvements. This small study is important as it reproduces the results of other adult studies that have shown an improvement in psychological symptoms following FMT. It provides yet more evidence of a gut-brain connection and should encourage others to explore this important connection.
If certain bacteria do instigate cancer, the finding could lead to new screening methods or treatments
The gut microbiome has stolen the show when it comes to the recent explosion of research on the bacteria that thrive within us. But bacteria also live in a woman’s breast tissue—and the mix of those microbes may have an equally important effect on health, according to a new study in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The results “suggest that microbes in the breast, even in low amounts, may be playing a role in breast cancer—increasing the risk in some cases and decreasing the risk in other cases,” says Gregor Reid, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Western University in Ontario and the study’s senior author.
One in eight women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetimes, but its origins remain unknown in most cases. Age, genetic predisposition and environmental changes are often implicated—and according to a growing body of research, bacteria may be one of those environmental factors. For instance, as early as the 1960s a number of studies have found that breast-feeding is associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, and more recent work suggests that this may be because breast milk supports the growth of beneficial microorganisms.
Link to full article –
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-breast-has-its-own-microbiome-and-the-mix-of-bacteria-could-prevent-or-encourage-cancer/#
Antibacterial cosmetics are so last year; the latest craze is for face creams, serums, and washes that actually add bacteria to the skin in order to make it look younger and healthier. But experts think that these products aren’t backed up by enough science to work as their manufacturers claim.
Because they can cause disease and infection, we often think of bacteria as the enemy. But in fact, they are essential to the body’s regular function—colonies of bacteria called the microbiome live in places like the intestines, mouth, vagina, and nose, outnumbering the body’s own cells. Every person’s microbiome is unique, influenced by factors like diet, age, gender, hometown, and family.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/18/can-bacteria-make-your-skin-healthier.html
Human skin, the barrier between the body and the outside world, is home to diverse microorganisms, some of which can promote immunity or fight invaders.
| June 13, 2014
The microbial communities that inhabit the skin, perhaps the most diverse of the human body, are suspected to be key players in host defense. New evidence suggests that commensal skin bacteria both directly protect humans from pathogenic invaders and help the immune system maintain that delicate balance between effective protection and damaging inflammation. While causal links between the skin’s commensal microbes and health or disease remain to be demonstrated, the clues that have accumulated in the last few years paint a suggestive picture.
“None of us in the field—and this is true for the gut, this is true for the skin—none of us can actually tell how our experimental observations really relate to human disease, but we’re getting, all of us, closer to mechanistic insights,” said immunologist Yasmine Belkaid, chief of mucosal immunology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID).
See full article at this link –
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/40228/title/Microbes-of-the-Skin/
The gut microbiota acts as a real organ. The symbiotic interactions between resident micro-organisms and the digestive tract highly contribute to maintain the gut homeostasis….(continued below in the window)
The intestinal tract represents the largest interface between the external environment and the human body. Nutrient uptake mostly happens in the intestinal tract, where the epithelial surface is constantly exposed to dietary antigens. Since inflammatory response toward these antigens may be deleterious for the host, a plethora of protective mechanisms take place to avoid or attenuate local damage. For instance, the intestinal barrier is able to elicit a dynamic response that either promotes or impairs luminal antigens adhesion and crossing. Regulation of intestinal barrier is crucial to control intestinal permeability whose increase is associated with chronic inflammatory conditions. The cross talk among bacteria, immune, and dietary factors is able to modulate the mucosal barrier function, as well as the intestinal permeability. Several nutritional products have recently been proposed as regulators of the epithelial barrier, even if their effects are in part contradictory. At the same time, the metabolic function of the microbiota generates new products with different effects based on the dietary content. Besides conventional treatments, novel therapies based on complementary nutrients are now growing. Fecal therapy has been recently used for the clinical treatment of refractory Clostridium difficile infection instead of the classical antibiotic therapy. In the present review, we will outline the epithelial response to nutritional components derived from dietary intake and microbial fermentation focusing on the consequent effects on the integrity of the epithelial barrier.
Front Immunol. 2015; 6: 612.
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been shown to be effective in treating relapsing or refractory Clostridium difficile infection, but practical barriers and safety concerns have prevented its widespread use.
To evaluate the safety and rate of resolution of diarrhea following administration of frozen FMT capsules from prescreened unrelated donors to patients with recurrent C. difficile infection.
Open-label, single-group, preliminary feasibility study conducted from August 2013 through June 2014 at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Twenty patients (median age, 64.5 years; range, 11-89 years) with at least 3 episodes of mild to moderate C. difficile infection and failure of a 6- to 8-week taper with vancomycin or at least 2 episodes of severe C. difficile infection requiring hospitalization were enrolled.
Healthy volunteers were screened as potential donors and FMT capsules were generated and stored at -80°C (-112°F). Patients received 15 capsules on 2 consecutive days and were followed up for symptom resolution and adverse events for up to 6 months.
The primary end points were safety, assessed by adverse events of grade 2 or above, and clinical resolution of diarrhea with no relapse at 8 weeks. Secondary end points included improvement in subjective well-being per standardized questionnaires and daily number of bowel movements.
No serious adverse events attributed to FMT were observed. Resolution of diarrhea was achieved in 14 patients (70%; 95% CI, 47%-85%) after a single capsule-based FMT. All 6 nonresponders were re-treated; 4 had resolution of diarrhea, resulting in an overall 90% (95% CI, 68%-98%) rate of clinical resolution of diarrhea (18/20). Daily number of bowel movements decreased from a median of 5 (interquartile range [IQR], 3-6) the day prior to administration to 2 (IQR, 1-3) at day 3 (P = .001) and 1 (IQR, 1-2) at 8 weeks (P < .001). Self-ranked health scores improved significantly on a scale of 1 to 10 from a median of 5 (IQR, 5-7) for overall health and 4.5 (IQR, 3-7) for gastrointestinal-specific health on the day prior to FMT to 8 (IQR, 7-9) after FMT administration for both overall and gastrointestinal health (P = .001). Patients needing a second treatment to obtain resolution of diarrhea had lower pretreatment health scores (median, 6.5 [IQR, 5-7.3] vs 5 [IQR, 2.8-5]; P = .02).
This preliminary study among patients with relapsing C. difficile infection provides data on adverse events and rates of resolution of diarrhea following administration of FMT using frozen encapsulated inoculum from unrelated donors. Larger studies are needed to confirm these results and to evaluate long-term safety and effectiveness.
JAMA. 2014 Nov 5;312(17):1772-8. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.13875.