Gut Microbes tagged posts

This is a diagram of human-plant-microbe interactions mediated by plant hormones. Credit: Chanclud and Lacombe

A bowl of salad contains more than vitamins and minerals. Plant matter also includes remnants of the hormones plants produce to control how they grow, age, and manage water intake. Recently, scientists have reported that our GI microbes and cells may respond to these hormones and even produce similar molecules of their own “We know that gut microbiota are involved in human diseases, and that microbes can biosynthesize plant hormones that affect humans, so it makes sense to investigate animal-microbe interactions from the perspective of plants,” says Benoît Lacombe of France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

For instance, gut microbes and dietary factors have been ti...

Highlights •Gut microbes promote α-synuclein-mediated motor deficits and brain pathology •Depletion of gut bacteria reduces microglia activation •SCFAs modulate microglia and enhance PD pathophysiology •Human gut microbiota from PD patients induce enhanced motor dysfunction in mice

Gut microbes may play a critical role in the development of Parkinson’s-like movement disorders in genetically predisposed mice, researchers report December 1 in Cell. Antibiotic treatment reduced motor deficits and molecular hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease in a mouse model, whereas transplantation of gut microbes from patients with Parkinson’s disease exacerbated symptoms in these mice...

Microbes under a microscope. Credit: NIAID

The research indicates that there may be a window of opportunity during early human development to optimize the chances of better lifelong health.
“Exercise affects many aspects of health, both metabolic and mental, and people are only now starting to look at the plasticity of these gut microbes,” said Prof Monika Fleshner. Microbes take up residence within human intestines shortly after birth and are vital to the development of the immune system and various neural functions. These microbes can add as many 5 million genes to a person’s overall genetic profile and thus have tremendous power to influence aspects of human physiology.

While this diverse microbial community remains somewhat malleable throughout adult life and can be influenced by envir...

This visual abstract depicts how drugging the gut microbiota with a nonlethal inhibitor that blocks production of the metabolite trimethylamine reduces the formation of atherosclerotic lesions and represents the first step toward treatment of cardiometabolic diseases by targeting the microbiome. Credit: Wang et al./Cell 2015

Dietary supplementation with a compound that is naturally abundant in red wine and olive oil prevented gut microbes from turning unhealthy foods into metabolic byproducts that clog arteries. The findings suggest that a Mediterranean diet exerts its beneficial health effects by altering the activity of gut microbes...