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...
A recent article in the Washington Post highlights a link between the gut microbiome composition and cancer immunotherapy treatment outcomes. The human gut microbiome consists of a vast array of bacteria, fungi, phages and other microbes. The interactions between the microbes and their interconnection with the host affects host immunity, health and homeostasis. In this...
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...
Obesity is a health problem that increases mortality and morbidity globally. Although there have been developments in therapeutic obesity treatments, the prevalence of obesity has increased. Additionally, there have been developments in understanding the mechanisms underlying obesity. For example, recent evidence highlights the gut microbiota as a risk factor for obesity. However, there is limited...
Thank you for your interest in our series of vaginal microbiome comparisons. Based on the results of this month’s survey, today we follow up on the functional metagenomic diversity of the non-pregnant community state type (CST) I female vaginal microbiome. As a quick refresher, a healthy vaginal microbiome harbors low microbial diversity, as opposed to...
A recent article in the New York Times highlights the discovery of the presence of distinct sets of fungi, in addition to bacteria, in different tumor tissues across body sites. Scientists have been long aware that our bodies host microbes but had the preconception that tumors did not harbor microbes, along with many other organs...
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...
Harmful algal bloom (HAB) incidence has been increasing over the past decades, particularly in various inland lakes and rivers in the United States. Human activities such as wastewater discharge and fertilizer, pesticide and urban water runoff into water bodies leads to algal proliferation and HABs. HABs secrete diverse cyanotoxins as secondary metabolites which may come...
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