BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: c. difficile

What’s Happening with Human Gut Microbiome Research?

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On November 18, 2019

In Student Post

Researchers are on the brink of reveling strong links between the human gut biome and the health of the individual. The potential of this research seems limitless. The human gut biome is responsible for all sorts of conditions, ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to diabetes, multiple sclerosis, autism, cancer, and AIDS. Furthering our understanding of this biome could lead to cures for these conditions.

Soon, the first microbiome therapies will be available on the market for purchase. Rebiotix, the first acquisition of a microbiome company, is currently working on developing a therapy for C. difficile infections. In an interview, Lee Jones, founder and CEO of Rebiotix, said

“It has become evident through research that the microbiota that humans carry have a significant impact on human health, [The C. difficile therapy] has the potential to be the first human gut microbiome product approved anywhere in the world.”

The C. difficile therapy would mark the first human gut biome therapy on the market, a major advance in medicine. This year is supposed to be an inflection point for human gut biome research. It is expected that research will finally show results proving that the therapies have effects on humans. If this comes true, the future for microbiome medicine is bright.

 

Valuable Poop

By

On November 19, 2018

In Student Post

Yep, that’s right. Poop can be valuable.

Wait? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Valuable poop?

Yes, as much of an oxymoron as it sounds, poop can be valuable. In a more recent treatment, fecal transplants have proved to be successful in helping with C. difficile infections. Antibiotics stop working, and all hope seems lost. However, there is a solution. Healthy people donate their stool (in the vernacular: poop) to those afflicted by a C. difficile infection in order to restore the health of their gut microbiome. The healthy microbial environment in the healthy stool restores the balance.

Look at that C. difficile, bad stuff!

How does this work? Do the microbiomes go to war?

Truth is, researchers are still trying to figure out exactly how the healthy gut microbiome is restored. We know that C. difficile can take over after treatment with antibiotics because it is faster growing and more resistant to antibiotics. They dominate the other microbes. The insertion of healthy stool with a balanced microbiome into a microbiome that is dominated by C. difficile will restore the microbiome’s diversity and balance. Basically, the healthy gut microbiome will kill or just outnumber the C. difficile, and then the problem is resolved. Scientists still aren´t really sure how this happens but are looking into it.

So what? I’ve never heard of a C. Difficile infection?

Good for you. C. Difficile has actually been afflicting many people in different ways, and some doctors even call it an ‘epidemic’. Even so, this new development has lead researches to believe that this could lead to something bigger. Some have tested if this same technique will help inflammatory bowel disease, to which they had promising results (however, still heterogeneous and statistically inconclusive). This is a creative way of using the microbial environment to help diseases, and an even more creative way to study microbial interactions.

 

Would you get a fecal transplant if it were recommended?

How do you think the C. Difficile is banished by the other microbes?

What do you think regarding the future of antibiotics?

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