From Our Friends The Microbes
The microbial world is fascinating. Textbooks agree with one another stating that air-independent unicellular microorganisms were the first colonizers of our planet. These organisms split into what we now call archaea and bacteria, and dominated the world for approximately 3 billion years. Over our short evolutionary history we have developed a symbiotic relationship with microbes. The most noteworthy of these relationships is the endosymbiotic theory, which states that the power house, otherwise known as mitochondria, within each one of our cells were once independent prokaryotes who were later engulfed by a eukaryotic (animal) cell. These mitochondria thrived inside of eukaryotic cells obtaining the necessary nutrients for survival quid pro quo of energy in the form of ATP to their host.
This will be your one paragraph course on bacteria. Bacteria come in three basic shape-models: spherical (coccus), rod (bacillus), and spiral (spirillum). Besides these three basic types there are other more specialized bacteria described as budding, sheathed, and mycelial. They do not contain membrane bound organelles like our human cells do, and have a tough protective coating layer encapsulating their cell known as a cell wall, bacteria cells are referred as prokaryotes. In 1884 Danish scientist Christian Gram made an experiment where he observed that certain bacteria stained under crystal violet, he called these bacteria gram positive while the ones that did not retain coloration were called gram negative, many disease causing bacteria are gram negative. Today we know the cell wall of gram positives and gram negatives differ vastly, gram positives have multiple layers of highly cross-linked peptidoglycans and alternating units of N-acetylglucosamide (NAG) and N-acetylmumaric acid (NAM) while gram negatives have just a single monolayer and are not as cross-linked.
Cells in the human body are outnumber by bacterial cells in a staggering 10:1 ratio. Some estimate that the adult human microbiome, compacted together, weighs about three pounds. Many scientists are beginning to understand the benefits of healthy intestinal bacteria. In a recent publication, Martin Blaser director of the Human Microbiome Project at NYU says, “Although you might think it a stretch to call this assemblage of microbes a vital organ, functionally the microbiome is just that.” Bacteria begin to colonize our bodies as soon as we enter this world and stay with us for the rest of our lives, unless our relation is somehow interrupted. We have known for quite some time that vaginal deliveries provide newborns with lactobacilli, which is an essential gram positive bacteria needed to break down lactose, the primary sugar in milk, into energy. In fact, from the time we are born it takes only three years to develop a full life-supporting microbiota.
In the last decade, the intricacies of the human microbiota have been analyzed under the microscope of many researchers around the world. Recently, the reputable journal Nature published the latest findings in the field. Scientific American in a special report called Innovations In the Microbiome highlighted many of these major findings. Special interest is given to research done by Harry Sokol, gastroenterologist at Saint Antoine Hospital in Paris. Sokol’s in vivo experiments using mice have shown that certain bacteria protect against inflammation. Findings involve F. prausnitzii, a clostridial microbe. Sokol is convinced that this anti-inflammatory bacterium is closely associated with the regulation of the immune system and could be related to diseases involving a hyperactive immune response; experiments in India, Japan, and Europe have found similar results. Researchers are now exploring the possibilities for future treatments for people suffering of autoimmune, allergic, and inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn’s and maybe even obesity.
There is no doubt that in certain situations bacteria do become problematic and patients need medical interventions and strong narrow-spectrum antibiotics to combat specific pathogens. But many professionals now agree that the use of antibiotics has spiral out of control and we could be facing problems in the near future. Bacteria develops resistance against antibiotics; it is Darwinian selection at its best. When we take an antibiotic we are not just getting rid of the bad guys, we are also annihilating the good ones; antibiotics do not differentiate between the two. In Missing Microbes, Martin Blaser says “…on average our children receive 17 courses of antibiotics before they are twenty years old.” Blaser goes on to explain that many healthy children have lingering infections, specially in the winter, and the proportion of sickness falls on a bell-shape curve with most sick children in the normal pattern. The problem lies in the fact that 60 to 80 percent of children who are taken to the doctor for an earache or a sore throat walkout with an antibiotic and most of the time the doctor has no idea if the illness is caused by a bacteria or a virus. One important point to make and one that many people fail to recognize is that, when an antibiotic is prescribed for presumed or confirmed strep throat it is prescribed not as a treatment but as prevention against rheumatic fever which could lead to heart valve damage, often the bicuspid mitral valve that receives oxygenated blood from the lungs.
Associated diseases of missing microbes have been correlated with asthma, allergies, obesity, heartburn, and inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis or crohn’s. Type I juvenile diabetes could be another disease where early exposure to antibiotics play a causative role or at the very least speeds-up the disease. Of particular interest is one radical treatment involving fecal transplantations on people suffering from ulcerative colitis and crohn’s. Though the procedure was first performed in 1958 by surgeon Ben Eiseman in the early days of antibiotics when people developed severed diarrheal episodes. Science journalist Mary Roach reports in her 2013, Gulp: Adventures of the Alimentary Canal, the findings of Alexander Khoruts, gastroenterologist and associate professor at Minnesota school of medicine regarding fecal transplantation in intractable C. diff infections in diverticulitis, by 2013 khoruts had performed forty transplants with a 93 percent success rate. The University of Alberta published in 2012, a paper highlighting 103 out of 124 immediate improvements in patients suffering of intractable C. diff. Despite this success stories the procedure has been overlooked and it is not currently recognized by most insurance companies.
So what can be done about this? And how can we protect our internal friends? a balance diet of legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables would certainly help. A diet high in sugars and fat has shown to increase the inflammatory species in the gut. Increasing fiber consumption is definitely something we the American people need to do more often. Fiber helps move things along the intestinal tract, thus avoiding episodes of straining and constipation that lead to diverticulosis (polyps in the large intestine caused by chronic constipation) and could later on result in diverticulitis (infection of these polyps). As Oxford immunologist Fiona Powrie says, “feed your Tregs more fiber” referring to the T-cell regulators of the immune system. There are more fascinating findings regarding microbes in many recent publications that you might find interesting, I recommend you to browse through them, after all missing microbes is a public health issue. I hope you found this blog interesting, as always leave you kudos, subscribe, and share information with others.
Until next time!
Mounir C. Cejin