Researchers have found that a few organisms in the gut microbiome play a key role in type 2 diabetes, opening the door to possible probiotic treatments for a serious metabolic disease affecting roughly one in 10 Americans.
"Type 2 diabetes is in fact a global pandemic and the number of diagnoses is expected to keep rising over the next decade," said study the senior author. "The so-called 'western diet' - high in saturated fats and refined sugars - is one of the primary factors. But gut bacteria have an important role to play in modulating the effects of diet."
Formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition affecting the way the body metabolizes glucose, a sugar that's a key source of energy. For some patients, that means their body resists the effects of insulin - the hormone produced by the pancreas that opens the door for sugar to enter cells. Other patients don't produce enough insulin to maintain normal glucose levels.
In either case, sugar builds up in the bloodstream and if left untreated the effect is impairment to many major organs, sometimes to disabling or life-threatening degrees. A key risk factor for type 2 diabetes is being overweight, often a result of a western diet in combination with low physical activity.
The human gut microbiome features more than 10 trillion microbial cells from about 1,000 different bacterial species. Dysbiosis, or imbalance, in the microbiome is commonly associated with detrimental effects on a person's health.
"Some studies suggest dysbiosis is caused by complex changes resulting from interactions of hundreds of different microbes," said the study's other co-leader. "However, our study and other studies suggest that individual members of the microbial community, altered by diet, might have a significant impact on the host."
The authors used a new, data-driven, systems-biology approach called transkingdom network analysis to study host-microbe interactions under a western diet. That allowed them to investigate whether individual members of the microbiota played a part in metabolic changes the diet induces in a host.
"The analysis pointed to specific microbes that potentially would affect the way a person metabolizes glucose and lipids," the author said. "Even more importantly, it allowed us to make inferences about whether those effects are harmful or beneficial to the host. And we found links between those microbes and obesity."
The scientists identified four operational taxonomic units, or OTUs, that seemed to affect glucose metabolism; OTUs are a means of categorizing bacteria based on gene sequence similarity.
The identified OTUs corresponded to four bacterial species: Lactobacillus johnsonii, Lactobacillus gasseri, Romboutsia ilealis and Ruminococcus gnavus.
"The first two microbes are considered potential 'improvers' to glucose metabolism, the other two potential 'worseners,'" another author said. "The overall indication is that individual types of microbes and/or their interactions, and not community-level dysbiosis, are key players in type 2 diabetes."
The researchers fed mice the equivalent of a western diet and then supplemented the rodents' intake with the improver and worsener microbes. The Lactobacilli boosted mitochondrial health in the liver, meaning improvements in how the host metabolizes glucose and lipids, and the mice receiving those Lactobacilli also had a lower fat mass index than those fed only a western diet.
Checking the mouse results against data from an earlier human study, the scientists found correlations between human body mass index and abundance of the four bacteria - more of the improvers meant a better body mass index, more of the worseners was connected to a less healthy BMI.
"We found R. ilealis to be present in more than 80% of obese patients, suggesting the microbe could be a prevalent pathobiont in overweight people," the author said.
A pathobiont is an organism that normally has a symbiotic relationship with its host but can become disease-causing under certain circumstances.
"Altogether, our observations support what we saw in the western diet-fed mice," the author said. "And in looking at all of the metabolites, we found a few that explain a big part of probiotic effects caused by Lactobacilli treatments."
Lactobacillus is a microbial genus that contains hundreds of different bacterial strains. Its representatives are common among probiotics and frequently found in many types of fermented foods and Lactobacillus-fortified dairy products, such as yogurt.
"Our study reveals potential probiotic strains for treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity as well as insights into the mechanisms of their action," the senior author said. "That means an opportunity to develop targeted therapies rather than attempting to restore 'healthy' microbiota in general."
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/research-shows-few-beneficial-organisms-could-play-key-role-treating-type-2-diabetes
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20313-x
http://sciencemission.com/site/index.php?page=news&type=view&id=publications%2Ftranskingdom&filter=22
Interactions between Lactobacilli and hepatic mitochondria attenuate western diet-induced diabetes
- 1,611 views
- Added
Edited
Latest News
TB blood test which could d…
By newseditor
Posted 27 Mar
Propionate supplementation…
By newseditor
Posted 27 Mar
Role of human Kallistatin i…
By newseditor
Posted 26 Mar
Addressing both flu and COV…
By newseditor
Posted 26 Mar
How the brain senses body p…
By newseditor
Posted 26 Mar
Other Top Stories
Secret tunnels to communicate and smuggle cancer signals to their n…
Read more
Skin cancer-causing fusion gene identified
Read more
Improved photodynamic therapy to kill cancer cells
Read more
DNA in blood can track cancer development and response in real time
Read more
Cell's mechanism to cope with the loss of TCA cycle enzyme, succina…
Read more
Protocols
All-optical presynaptic pla…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
Epigenomic tomography for p…
By newseditor
Posted 20 Mar
A mouse DRG genetic toolkit…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Mar
An optogenetic method for t…
By newseditor
Posted 13 Mar
Profiling native pulmonary…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Mar
Publications
Integrated plasma proteomic…
By newseditor
Posted 27 Mar
APP antisense oligonucleoti…
By newseditor
Posted 27 Mar
Targeting Erbin-mitochondri…
By newseditor
Posted 27 Mar
Regulation of Zbp1 by miR-9…
By newseditor
Posted 27 Mar
Pain-free oral delivery of…
By newseditor
Posted 27 Mar
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar