Am I talking about a crime drama? A political battle? People in a troubled city? Nope, I am talking about the microbes in your gut and their relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Almost 20 million people worldwide die from CVD, making it the number one cause of death. The causes of CVD are many, including genetics, diet, behavior, but also your microbiome. Han-Na Kim’s research team reports in the journal mSystems that the human microbiome of the gut has an impact on CVD. The research team compared samples from 14 people with coronary artery disease (CAD) to those from 28 healthy controls. They did this by extracting all the DNA from fecal samples and sequencing it. The sequenced DNA was then pieced together to identify genomes in a process called metagenomics. It is then possible to compare the species present in the CAD group to those in the control and determine the present species and the absent ones, along with figuring out the trouble makers and healers. This work goes beyond just identifying who lives there and starts to investigate what they are doing and how that impacts CVD.
Short-chain fatty acid production in the gut by the microbiome is protective, and strains that generate these compounds are beneficial to the host and lower the incidence of CAD. However, other strains that increase inflammation are known to increase the risk of CAD. Kim’s group found there was a dramatic shift toward inflammation and metabolic imbalance and a loss of short-chain fatty acid producers, such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. They also found that the role bacteria play in the gut can change, shifting from being beneficial to being harmful depending upon the overall state of the community. Much more work will be needed to sort out what the microbiome is doing in the gut, working out who is there, the pathways they use, and the products they form. Once the metabolic behavior of the community and its members becomes clear, it may lead to interventions that can prevent CVD.
interesting!
A really good blog and me back again.