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Gut Microbiota: A New Kind of Biomarker?

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The composition of the gut microbiota provides a huge potential of new biomarkers for indicating intestinal conditions. Experts presented new findings at the Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit 2016 (March 5/6, Miami).

The gut microbiota composition is significantly altered in patients with metabolic conditions. Prof. Max Nieuwdorp (University of Amsterdam / The Netherlands) presented studies that showed that an enrichment of Lactobacillus gasseri and Streptococcus mutans in the gut serves as a good predictor for the development of insulin resistance. Equally important is the observation that the amount of bacteria that produce short chain fatty acids such as Roseburia and Faecallibacterium prausnitzii is reduced in patients with Type-2 diabetes. Prof. Nieuwdorp said that connecting different types of microbial composition with classical clinical biomarkers may provide diagnostic patterns that help to assess disease risks and select the measures that are best suited for the individual patient.

A study presented by Dr. Kishore Vipperla, focussed on connections between diet and colon cancer risk factors. The study compared two groups: 20 African Americans (a population with high risk of colon cancer) and 20 participants from rural South Africa, where the disease occurs very rarely. The two groups swapped diets for two weeks: Americans were given a ‘traditional African’ diet, while Africans were given a western diet. Within two weeks the food swap dramatically increased the colon cancer risk In the African participants, indicated by inflammation and the proliferation rate of mucosal epithelial cells that count as important biomarkers for this condition. This was associated with altered metabolic interactions between the intestinal bacteria leading to raised levels of beneficial bacterial metabolites in the guts of the American participants while the opposite was true for the Africans.


Source: PR Newswire