Posted on 06/05/2021 11:18:16 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
Bacteria normally inhabiting healthy people’s intestines — and the anti-inflammatory metabolites these bacteria produce — are depleted in ulcerative colitis patients…a study has tied the condition to a missing microbe.
The microbe makes metabolites that help keep the gut healthy.
…Their first clue lay in a large difference in levels of a group of substances called secondary bile acids in the intestines…
Primary bile acids are produced in the liver, stored in the gallbladder and released into the digestive tract to help emulsify fats. The vast majority of secreted primary bile acids are taken up in the intestine, where resident bacteria perform a series of enzymatic operations to convert them to secondary bile acids.
Prior research has suggested…that secondary bile acids are depleted in ulcerative colitis patients and in those with a related condition, Crohn’s disease, in which tissue-destroying inflammation can occur in both the colon and the small intestine.
The researchers confirmed that levels of the two most prominent secondary bile acids, deoxycholic acid and lithocholic acid, were much lower in stool specimens…
…Moreover, the investigators showed that a single bacterial family — Ruminococcaceae — was markedly underrepresented…. A genomic analysis of all the gut bacteria in the participants showed that the genes for making enzymes that convert primary bile acids to secondary bile acids were underrepresented, too.
“All healthy people have Ruminococcaceae in their intestines,” Habtezion said. “But in the UC pouch patients, members of this family were significantly depleted.”
Incubating primary bile acids with stool samples from FAP pouch patients, but not from ulcerative colitis pouch patients, resulted in those substances’ effective conversion to secondary bile acids.
…supplementation with lithocholic acid and deoxycholic acid reduced infiltration by inflammatory immune cells and levels of several inflammatory signaling proteins and chemicals in the mice’s intestines…
(Excerpt) Read more at med.stanford.edu ...
Interesting how bacteria can be both good and bad. Kinda like politics. R’s are the good ones. D’s are the bad ones.
TAKE-HOME MESSAGE
In this longitudinal study of the dynamics of fecal microbiota in patients with ulcerative colitis, the authors demonstrated that microbiota composition is constant over time, with no alterations before, during, or after disease flares.
Evaluation of the long-term stability of an individual’s gut microbiota showed that microbiota differences previously seen in patients with active disease and quiescent disease may be related to individual differences rather than to differences in intestinal inflammation. Thus, future evaluations of nutritional treatments of IBD with microbiota as a target may require a consistent, long-term dietary strategy.
Patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) have an altered gut microbiota composition, but the microbial relationship to disease activity needs to be further elucidated. Therefore, temporal dynamics of the fecal microbial community during remission and flare was determined. Fecal samples were collected at 2-6 time-points from UC patients during established disease (cohort EST) and at diagnosis (cohort NEW). Sampling range for cohort EST was 3-10 months and for cohort NEW 36 months. Relapses were monitored for an additional three years for cohort EST. Microbial composition was assessed by Genetic Analysis GA-map Dysbiosis Test, targeting ≥ 300 bacteria. Eighteen patients in cohort EST (8 with maintained remission and 10 experiencing a flare), provided 71 fecal samples. In cohort NEW, 13 patients provided 49 fecal samples. The microbial composition showed no clustering related to disease activity in any cohort. Microbial dissimilarity was higher between than within patients for both cohorts, irrespective of presence of a flare. Microbial stability within patients was constant over time with no major shift in overall composition nor modification in the abundance of any specific species. Microbial composition was not affected by intensified medical treatment or linked to future disease course. Thus in UC, the gut microbiota is highly stable irrespective of disease stage, disease activity or treatment escalation. This suggests that prolonged dietary interventions or repeated fecal transplantations are needed to be able to induce permanent alterations of the gut microbiota.
Sci Rep 2021 Apr 21;[EPub Ahead of Print]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-87973-7
Better late than never, but I predict expensive ‘treatments’ rather than identifying the root causes of gut maladies...which have already been identified (& ignored by nearly everyone in science, medicine & the general public at-large).
“Here: Pop a Pepcid for that acid reflux.”
My God in Heaven...
one of the proposed alternative treatments for gut problems is fecal transplants-
Fecal Transplant: What You Should Know
antibiotics... I didn’t see antibiotics there anywhere in the article.
How MANY of these patients were prescribed an antibiotic at age 3 months for a HEAD cold and a “red ear drum” (best treated with steroids if not tincture of time) and went on to have “recurrent AOM, sinusitis, bronchitis, colitis, et ceteritis” throughout their formative years all because of the sloppy unforgivable belief that antibiotics are benign yet are prescribed in roughly fifty percent of urgent care visits across the nation?
And those “metabolites”? Also known as cofactors, they’re products of OTHER bacteria necessary to maintain colonies of beneficial bacteria.
This is basic science and in the interest of “customer service,” and worship of the almighty dollar, “providers” frequently accede to pig-ignorant patients with no initials after their last names in their demands for antibiotics for a scratchy throat of one hour they “always get antibiotics for” because “I always get sinus infections.”
Amateurs. Idiots. Collaborators.
ASSASSINS! (in my best Doctor “Bones” McCoy impersonation).
Fecal transplants.
Yew.
Hint: Antibiotics are merely part of the problem.
Gall bladder removal could be a contributing factor.
Some years ago I read about the transfer of beneficialintestinal bacteria through kissing.
Thanks for the article.
It has been said that while the 20th century was the era of antibiotics, the 21st century will be the era of probiotics.
“Bacteria [are] missing from the colon.”
True. I have learned that some people with IBS are missing certain elements in the digestive track. Everyone one different. The job is for the patient to try a variety of remedies and pray that something that substitutes for the mission elements, like Vit D, Resveratrol or a probiotic.
I’m with you.
I know.
Good job on providing a condensation of the article. Thanks.
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