Good germs to fight bad germs.
Penn Medicine researchers have singled out a bacterial enzyme behind an imbalance in the gut microbiome linked to Crohn's disease. The new study, published online this week in Science Translational Medicine, suggests that wiping out a significant portion of the bacteria in the gut microbiome, and then re-introducing a certain type of "good" bacteria that lacks this enzyme, known as urease, may be an effective approach to better treat these diseases.
"Because it's a single enzyme that is involved in this process, it might be a targetable solution," said the study's senior author, Gary D. Wu, MD, associate chief for research in the division of Gastroenterology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "The idea would be that we could 'engineer' the composition of the microbiota in some way that lacks this particular one."
[...] In a series of human and mouse studies, the researchers discovered that a type of "bad" bacteria known as Proteobacteria feeding on urea, a waste product that can end up back in the colon, played an important role in the development of dysbiosis.
The "bad" bacteria, which harbor the urease enzyme, convert urea into ammonia (nitrogen metabolism), which is then reabsorbed by bacteria to make amino acids that are associated with dysbiosis in Crohn's disease. "Good" bacteria may not respond in a similar manner, and thus may serve as a potential therapeutic approach to engineer the microbiome into a healthier state and treat disease.
If the technique works, it could open the door to treating other conditions like obesity.
Josephine Ni, et al A role for bacterial urease in gut dysbiosis and Crohn's disease. Science Translational Medicine, 2017; 9 (416): eaah6888 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aah6888
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @03:20AM
Usually bad bacteria are there in large quantities because the good and neutral bacteria aren't competing with them. The whole business of antibiotics makes little sense in most cases as it's almost always preferable to add benign bacteria rather than try to remove harmful ones. The antibiotics that get prescribed have an impact on not just the ones that the doctors are targeting, but the rest of them as well.
Unless you're dealing with a situation where not getting antibiotics is likely to lead to permanent injury or death, you're usually better off not using antibiotics.