The gut microbiome has clear implications for health and disease. Recent evidence of this comes from a US FDA vote for approval of the microbiome-based drug RBX2660, created by Rebiotix Inc, A Ferring Company, to treat potentially deadly bacterial infections with Clostridium difficile (Cdiff). Cdiff is a common gut bacteria that may cause severe diarrhea...
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease targeting the central nervous system with a prevalence of around 2.8 million people globally. The etiopathogenesis of MS is multifactorial and involves environmental factors. Amongst the environmental factors, the gut microbiota is a key player modulating MS. Dietary habits drive the gut microbiome. Thus, dietary shifts change...
A recent article featured on BBC highlights that the gut microbiome may have a greater role in the improvement of health through exercise than we previously thought. Our guts are alive with a vast diversity of microbial residents. Their roles range from fermenting dietary fibers, vitamin synthesis, and fat metabolism regulation to immune support against...
Nasal swabs and saliva are conventional methods for detection of SARS-CoV-2, but the virus is also present in feces. Therefore, fecal material in wastewater samples could be used to track community dynamics of the virus. To do that, Brumfield et al. (2022) collected wastewater samples from manholes and then processed them for microbial genome sequencing...
Diet drinks that contain non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) have been around for more than 60 years. Since the dawn of the diet drink introduction to the market, a fizzing debate began; do the sweeteners, including aspartame, saccharine, sucralose and stevia, do more harm than good? Are they just innocent satisfiers of our urge to consume sweets...
Over the last decade, the field of metagenomics has grown extensively, leading to an exponential increase in sequencing data in public data repositories. Availability of this huge collection of data has accelerated the discovery of novel microbiome-related biomarkers and microbiome-based novel biomedical therapeutics. One of the key steps in identifying potential biomarkers or lead candidates...
The oral microbiome is second to the gut microbiome in human microbiome complexity partly due to its constant exposure to inhaled and ingested microbes. There are estimated to be more than 700 microbial species in the oral cavity and 54% of these microbes are uncultivable. As such, elucidating the metabolic functions of the uncultivable oral...
Plastic particles < 5 mm are classified as microplastics. Microplastics are present in almost all aquatic ecosystems, from the Arctic to the deep ocean. Moreover, microplastics can migrate between different aquatic environments, such as lakes, seas and oceans. This environmental problem becomes a health concern when the microplastics enter into a new aquatic ecosystem where...
Introduction The advent of metagenomic sequencing has led to significant advancements in our understanding of the microbiome in a wide variety of contexts, from the human body1 to farm animals2,3, soil, and marine environments4. Each unique environment provides its own set of challenges in accurate microbial identification, including low microbial biomass in ocean samples, PCR...
Every day somebody loses a loved one. Bereavement is often accompanied by stress, health decline, less energy, problems in eating, an upset belly, and more. A recent piece in Time magazine suggests that grief affecting the gut microbiome may be the culprit. To start with, stress may activate the sympathetic nervous system to induce a...
© 2023 CosmosID. All rights reserved