Peptic ulcers, gastroesophageal reflux, and other gastrointestinal disorders are often treated with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).
Gut Microbiota Research & Practice is a section dedicated to promoting knowledge-sharing and debate among researchers, scientists and healthcare professionals. You will find a selection of discussions about articles from scientific literature as well as other content including interviews with experts, event reports, and special publications.
Why the immune system is key to understanding host-microbe interactions
4 Jan 2016by Kristina Campbell
In 2015, scientists published more than 500 papers on the microbiome and immunity. This is not surprising to Dr. Joaquín (Quim) Madrenas, professor and Canada Research Chair in Human Immunology at McGill University (Canada) -- he sees the immune system as a key factor in understanding the relationship between microbiota and host.
When a host experiences increased energy demands, do the gut microbiota help maintain homeostasis?
Research shows that host-microbe interactions can regulate immune and metabolic pathways. Here, Fu and colleagues investigated the connection between the microbiota and selected risk factors for cardiovascular disease in humans: abnormal blood lipid levels and high body mass.
Authors of this paper attempted a meta-analysis of 56 studies on single-strain and multi-strain probiotics for the treatment of IBS, but trials were so heterogeneous when it came to probiotic concentration, duration of treatment, and methodology, that the meta-analysis was abandoned.
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) has shown mixed clinical results (see recent trials here and here). In a new pilot study, published as open access, Faming Zhang and colleagues tested the safety and efficacy of a "step-up" FMT strategy in 15 steroid-dependent UC patients.
Authors of a new Cell paper gave groups of germ-free mice fecal microbiota samples from six healthy adults representing five different habitual diets: American (both a standard diet and a 'primal' diet), Bangladeshi, Malawian, and Amerindian.
This important paper increased our scientific understanding of the mechanism by which a host's circadian clock can affect metabolism and health. Leone, et al. showed that both gut microbiota composition and metabolite production fluctuated daily in mice and that these changes were associated with host circadian rhythms and were modifiable by diet.
Researchers know the fecal microbiota of infants is a treasure trove of information -- it can reveal details about delivery mode and diet -- but microbiota-based predictions about future health are only beginning to emerge. A team of researchers led
Finding connections between the microbiome, the metabolome, and the immune system
2 Nov 2015by Paul Enck
Microbes in the gut produce a huge range of metabolites, which affect various processes in the host. Knowledge about the metabolome is limited by current experimental and computational tools, but even now, interconnections are emerging between the microbiome, the metabolome, and immunological reponses -- for instance, the possible role of metabolites in immune system pattern recognition.
