While bacteria are generally considered poor for our health, our body depends on many of these bacteria for survival. In fact, our body has roughly 10 times more bacteria than cells within it. Many of these bacteria are concentrated in our gut, referred to collectively as the gut flora. From the time we are born, the microbiome in our gut is cultivated in our body and is likely to change significantly over our lifetime. However, these bacteria simply aren’t sitting there in the gut. Current research shows that your personal gut microbiome can influence an expanse of health outcomes that range from pathology to behavior.
From a health care perspective, studying the microbiome can prove to be an alternative method of treatment for certain diseases. With the rising incidence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it is becoming more important than ever to find alternative methods that can fight disease using the human body’s own mechanisms. An application of the microbiome to cure disease has been found in C. diff colitis treatment. This disease, which affects the colon, is caused by the pathogen Clostridium difficile, which is a bacterium that is found on many contaminated surfaces like countertops and doors, especially in hospital settings. It is widely thought that when C. diff patients take powerful antibiotics, the bacteria has the ability to overrun the intestine and take over the gut microbiome, leading to widespread intestinal inflammation. C. diff is actually lethal if not unpleasant, and antibiotic treatment yields paltry results. Therefore, research on the disease is still continuing and is growing. In fact, C. diff research is being conducted right here at Emory.
Saline fecal transplantation has been investigated as a probable way to cure C. diff, with initial trials producing an overwhelmingly high success rate. The procedure involves the mixing of healthy patient feces with saline and subsequent infusion into a C. diff patient. The rationale lies in the fact that normal C. diff treatment, which consists of powerful antibiotics, only exacerbates why C. diff proliferates in the first place. Interestingly, however, gut transplantations seem to work by introducing new, most likely beneficial, bacteria into the gut microbiome. These new bacteria can then crowd out C. diff and thus halt its growth into the microbiome. Additionally, since the treatment doesn’t clear the microbiome like antibiotics do, the probability of C. diff relapse also decreases.
Research has also connected the microbiome to diseases outside of the colon too. Publications have come out that link certain strains of bacteria in the gut to increasing energy harvesting and the diversity of the gut to an increased likelihood of developing obesity; while these connections haven’t been fully established as of yet, what is interesting is that the microbiome has any influence on obesity at all. Because obesity is a problem largely thought to have been due to sedentary behavior with some genetics mixed in, the possibility of something so little as the microbiome having a significant impact on obesity causes an interesting change in perspective to both the causes and solutions of the current epidemic.
Indeed, the microbiome is so connected to what we eat that nowadays, researchers are investigating the possibility of whether these gut bacteria can control our behavior to crave certain foods. Evolutionarily speaking, this makes total sense: in order to survive to reproduce, these bacteria, which are presumably commensal in nature, must influence host behavior in order to get the right nutrients they need in order to reproduce. While this pattern is demonstrated in nature, it is still novel to discover the possibility of bacteria influencing our behavior.
Research on the gut is growing ever more, with the microbiome set to become one of the top subjects currently being investigated in the biological sciences. Students interested in the biological sciences can find a treasure of information from researching just one aspect of the microbiome. From influencing disease treatment to its striking diversity, the actions of the microbiome determine a lot about one particular person, and the collection of bacteria can vary strikingly across different people. Therefore, this collection of bacteria serves to be an exciting avenue in studying human genetic diversity and to this day remains to be fully understood.
Somnath Das is a College sophomore from Warner Robins, Georgia.
Bacteria Within Us
Somnath Das
