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A healthy microbiome builds a strong immune system that could help defeat COVID-19

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The microbes living in the gut are key to good health. Dr_Microbe/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Takeaways

  • Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria that are vital for keeping you healthy.
  • Some of these microbes help to regulate the immune system.
  • New research, which has not yet been peer reviewed, shows the presence of certain bacteria in the gut may reveal which people are more vulnerable to a more severe case of COVID-19.

You may not know it, but you have an united states army of microbes living inside of you that are all-important for fighting off threats, including the virus that causes COVID-19 .
In the past two decades scientists have learned our bodies are home to more bacterial cells than human ones. This residential district of bacteria that lives in and on us – called the microbiome – resembles a company, with each microbe species performing specialize jobs but all working to keep us healthy. In the catgut, the bacteria balance the immune reception against pathogens. These bacteria ensure the immune response is effective but not then violent that it causes collateral damage to the host .
Bacteria in our guts can elicit an effective immune response against viruses that not only infect the gut, such as norovirus and rotavirus, but besides those infecting the lungs, such as the influenza virus. The beneficial intestine microbes do this by ordering specialized immune cells to produce potent antiviral proteins that ultimately eliminate viral infections. And the consistency of a person lacking these beneficial catgut bacteria won ’ t have as potent an immune response to invading viruses. As a consequence, infections might go unbridled, taking a toll on health .
I am a microbiologist fascinated by the ways bacteria shape human health. An authoritative focus of my research is figuring out how the beneficial bacteria populating our guts fight disease and infection. My most recent work focuses on the link between a especial microbe and the badness of COVID-19 in patients. My ultimate goal is to figure out out how to enhance the intestine microbiome with diet to evoke a potent immune response – for not good SARS-CoV-2 but all pathogens .

How do resident bacteria keep you healthy?

Our immune defense is part of a complex biological reply against harmful pathogens, such as viruses or bacteria. however, because our bodies are inhabited by trillions of by and large beneficial bacteria, virus and fungi, energizing of our immune response is tightly regulated to distinguish between harmful and helpful microbes .
Our bacteria are spectacular companions diligently helping prime our immune system defenses to combat infections. A germinal learn found that mouse treated with antibiotics that eliminate bacteria in the catgut exhibited an impaired immune response. These animals had abject counts of virus-fighting white lineage cells, weak antibody responses and inadequate production of a protein that is full of life for combating viral infection and modulating the immune reception .
In another study, mice were fed Lactobacillus bacteria, normally used as probiotic in ferment food. These microbes reduced the badness of influenza contagion. The Lactobacillus-treated mouse did not lose weight and had lone balmy lung wrong compared with untreated mouse. similarly, others have found that discussion of shiner with Lactobacillus protects against different subtypes of influenza virus and human respiratory syncytial virus – the major campaign of viral bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children .

Chronic disease and microbes

Patients with chronic illnesses including type 2 diabetes, fleshiness and cardiovascular disease exhibit a hyperactive immune system that fails to recognize a harmless stimulation and is linked to an altered catgut microbiome .
In these chronic diseases, the intestine microbiome lacks bacteria that activate immune cells that block the reply against harmless bacteria in our guts. such revision of the intestine microbiome is besides observed in babies delivered by cesarean section, individuals consuming a poor diet and the aged .
In the U.S., 117 million individuals – about half the adult population – digest from type 2 diabetes, fleshiness, cardiovascular disease or a combination of them. That suggests that half of american adults carry a defective microbiome united states army .
inquiry in my lab focuses on identifying gut bacteria that are critical for creating a balanced immune system, which fights dangerous bacterial and viral infections, while tolerating the beneficial bacteria in and on us .
Given that diet affects the diverseness of bacteria in the gut, my lab studies show how diet can be used as a therapy for chronic diseases. Using different foods, people can shift their gut microbiome to one that boosts a healthy immune answer.

A fraction of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, develop severe complications that require hospitalization in intensive care units. What do many of those patients have in common ? Old age and chronic diet-related diseases like fleshiness, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease .
Black and Latinx people are disproportionately affected by fleshiness, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, all of which are linked to poor nutriment. therefore, it is not a coincidence that these groups have suffered more deaths from COVID-19 compared with whites. This is the subject not only in the U.S. but besides in Britain .

Discovering microbes that predict COVID-19 severity

The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired me to shift my research and explore the function of the gut microbiome in the excessively aggressive immune answer against SARS-CoV-2 infection .
My colleagues and I have hypothesized that critically ill SARS-CoV-2 patients with conditions like fleshiness, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease show an alter intestine microbiome that aggravates acute respiratory distress syndrome .
Acute respiratory distress syndrome, a dangerous lung injury, in SARS-CoV-2 patients is thought to develop from a fatal overreaction of the immune reply called a cytokine storm that causes an uncontrolled flood of immune cells into the lungs. In these patients, their own uncontrolled incendiary immune reply, preferably than the virus itself, causes the severe lung injury and multiorgan failures that lead to death .
respective studies described in one recent reappraisal have identified an change gut microbiome in patients with COVID-19. however, identification of specific bacteria within the microbiome that could predict COVID-19 severity is lacking .
To address this question, my colleagues and I recruited COVID-19 hospitalized patients with severe and moderate symptoms. We collected stool and saliva samples to determine whether bacteria within the gut and oral microbiome could predict COVID-19 severity. The identification of microbiome markers that can predict the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 disease is key to help prioritize patients needing pressing treatment .
We demonstrated, in a wallpaper that has not yet been peer reviewed, that the constitution of the gut microbiome is the strongest predictor of COVID-19 asperity compared to patient ’ sulfur clinical characteristics normally used to do indeed. specifically, we identified that the presence of a bacteria in the stool – called Enterococcus faecalis– was a robust predictor of COVID-19 austereness. not surprisingly, Enterococcus faecalis has been associated with chronic excitement .
Enterococcus faecalis collected from feces can be grown outside of the body in clinical laboratories. frankincense, an E. faecalis test might be a cost-efficient, rapid and relatively comfortable way to identify patients who are likely to require more supportive care and remedy interventions to improve their chances of survival .
But it is not so far clear from our research what is the contribution of the altered microbiome in the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. A recent study has shown that SARS-CoV-2 contagion triggers an imbalance in immune cells called T regulative cells that are critical to immune balance .
Bacteria from the gut microbiome are responsible for the proper activation of those T-regulatory cells. therefore, researchers like me need to take reprise affected role fecal matter, saliva and blood samples over a longer prison term frame to learn how the interpolate microbiome observed in COVID-19 patients can modulate COVID-19 disease severity, possibly by altering the development of the T-regulatory cells.

As a Latina scientist investigating interactions between diet, microbiome and exemption, I must stress the importance of better policies to improve access to healthy foods, which lead to a healthier microbiome. It is besides important to design culturally sensitive dietary interventions for Black and Latinx communities. While a good-quality diet might not prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, it can treat the underlying conditions related to its badness .
The Conversation
This article is republished from The Conversation under a creative Commons license. Read the original article .

source : https://nutritionline.net
Category : Healthy