I couldn’t help cutting and pasting this tantalizing piece of news from another blog http://blog.the-scientist.com/2011/03/14/news-in-a-nutshell-37/
While most the news on gut bacteria these days is good—regulating immunity, for example, and even behavior—new evidence from Africa suggests that these commensal microbes may play a role in the negative consequences of malnutrition. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis studied malnourished children in the African nation of Malawi and found that identical twins with similar diets seldom suffer equally from kwashiorkor—the condition that swells the bellies of malnourished children and makes them more susceptible to disease and death. In fact, in only 7% of more than 300 pairs of twins did both children have the condition, the researchers reported last week at the International Human Microbiome Congress in Vancouver, Canada.
Transplanting gut bacterial communities from twins with and without kwashiorkor into mouse models, the scientists found that mice colonized by bacteria from children with the condition lost more weight on the typical Malawian diet of maize flour and vegetables than mice implanted with bacteria from the healthier twin. Though parasites could also play into kwashiorkor and otherwise worsening the health of some malnourished children, the study yields tantalizing clues that could lead to a regimen of healthy bacteria to supplement nutrient-enriched foods dispersed to the world’s hungry. “Maybe we can do earlier interventions — before they suffer,” Michelle Smith, the Washington University postdoc who presented the preliminary results, told Nature News.
Wow. First of all I totally congratulate the person who noticed that twins were not similarly affected by malnutrition. Secondly, what a fascinating possibility – that our gut flora can be manipulated and tuned to improve nutrition. Perhaps it can be tuned in the opposite direction as well – to derive less nutritive value from the food available - the diet products industry will be all over this one. Here is a link to the slightly more detailed report in Nature News:
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110310/full/news.2011.151.html
The paper was presented at a confrence so there doesn’t seem to be a published version – yet. Stay tuned!
Curious to know more? Here are links to a couple of other related articles on the influence of our gut flora on our nutritional status:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060522/full/news060522-19.html
and http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061218/full/news061218-6.html
Presumably there’s no treatment for gut bacteria here, except better diet.
I think there might be treatment for “suboptimal” gut bacteria somewhere down the road. The information in this post was from a report at a conference which I found really interesting. Once scientists have elucidated exactly how identical twins from the same household and environment end up with very different gut bacteria, it might be possible to figure out ways to treat that, i.e. to give the malnourished twin the same bacteria complement as in the healthy twin.
Thinking more broadly, however, it also might cast doubts on our current understanding of the causes of malnutrition and kwashiorkor in particular. Is that one twin had an episode of some disease, or exposure to some agent that the other twin somehow escaped? what exactly is the cause of the difference? I assume (but without reading the paper or hearing the presentation) that they controlled for possible biases such as sex preference whereby a boy might be fed more or better food than a girl twin. Some of the other links in the post comment on the role of H. pylori which we now know to be a causative agent of ulcers – that is fairly new knowledge which led to a major change in the treatment of ulcers. So this is an exciting new topic – gasteroenterologists must be thrilled!
It is good that you mentioned the possible reverse effects that could be exploited by diet companies. There is a curious dichotomy in the world of malnourishment of overweight/underweight people and where research will go. The money maker would obviously be to Western weight loss but the need if focus more to undernourished people where there isn’t the same personal responsibility that can be taken.
To go along with Margo’s comment, I read an article for another class called “A Hidden Trigger of Obesity: Intestinal Bugs.”
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1969807,00.html
Researchers found a bacterium in mice that causes inflammation, then insulin resistance, and then ultimately increased appetite. I worry about Western society’s obsession with trendy weight loss strategies – messing with your intestinal bacteria could end disastrously.