How Bacteria In The Gut Help Fight Off Viruses

[Lola Lyme]

How Bacteria In The Gut Help Fight Off Viruses
November 14, 2014

Immunologists at Georgia State University found that a tiny piece of gut bacteria can prevent and cure a rotavirus infection in mice.

The study suggests a whole new benefit of the microbiome: to fight off viruses, says Lora Hooper, an immunologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who wasn't involved in the study. "It's tremendously important work," she says.

"If this holds true in people," Hooper says, "it would make me think twice about taking antibiotics. Not only are they going to screw around with your gut bacteria, but they may make you more susceptible to viruses."

Lees meer Bron: NPR

Prevention and cure of rotavirus infection via TLR5/NLRC4–mediated production of IL-22 and IL-18
Benyue Zhang, Benoit Chassaing, Zhenda Shi, Robin Uchiyama, Zhan Zhang, Timothy L. Denning, Sue E. Crawford, Andrea J. Pruijssers, Jason A. Iskarpatyoti, Mary K. Estes, Terence S. Dermody, Wenjun Ouyang, Ifor R. Williams, Matam Vijay-Kumar, Andrew T. Gewirtz,
Science 14 November 2014: Vol. 346 no. 6211 pp. 861-865 DOI: 10.1126/science.1256999

Activators of innate immunity may have the potential to combat a broad range of infectious agents. We report that treatment with bacterial flagellin prevented rotavirus (RV) infection in mice and cured chronically RV-infected mice. Protection was independent of adaptive immunity and interferon (IFN, type I and II) and required flagellin receptors Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) and NOD-like receptor C4 (NLRC4). Flagellin-induced activation of TLR5 on dendritic cells elicited production of the cytokine interleukin-22 (IL-22), which induced a protective gene expression program in intestinal epithelial cells. Flagellin also induced NLRC4-dependent production of IL-18 and immediate elimination of RV-infected cells. Administration of IL-22 and IL-18 to mice fully recapitulated the capacity of flagellin to prevent or eliminate RV infection and thus holds promise as a broad-spectrum antiviral agent.

Lees meer Bron: Science

[Sproetje]

Link Found Between Gut Bacteria And Depression

Uit: IFL Science
28 Juli, 2015
Door: Caroline Reid

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-an ... depression

Scientists have shown for the first time that there is a way to model how the gut bacteria in a mouse can have an active role in causing anxiety and depressive-like behaviors.

It has been shown that the gut microbiome can affect many aspects of our health, but most of this research has been performed on mice that were healthy. The scientists from McMaster University wanted to test how the gut microbiome affected stressed mice. The results have been published in nature communications.
[.......]
It would be interesting to see if this relationship also effects humans. It could have interesting implications for the future direction of anxiety and depression treatments. Bercik told IFLScience that the next stage for his team will be to gather human data.
[.......]
"We need to obtain some human data to be able to say with confidence that bacteria are really inducing anxiety or depression. I think it’s very likely that for at least a percentage of patients with psychiatric disorders, the microbiota is playing an important role. However, so far, the data is missing.”