{"id":1620,"date":"2021-02-02T11:24:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T11:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2021-02-02T11:24:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T11:24:29","slug":"why-gut-bacteria-are-becoming-key-suspects-in-autoimmune-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1620\/why-gut-bacteria-are-becoming-key-suspects-in-autoimmune-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"Why gut bacteria are becoming key suspects in autoimmune diseases"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The human immune system is powerful and complex. It must be on guard at all times and be able to distinguish friend from foe. Unfortunately, it does not always get it right and sometimes attacks the body\u2019s own cells, causing hundreds of \u2018autoimmune\u2019 diseases, from multiple sclerosis (MS) to rheumatoid arthritis.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What causes the immune system to err in this way is not clear, but a growing body of research is looking at the trillions of microbes that share our bodies, known collectively as the microbiome, for an answer.<\/p>\n

Studies of twins indicate that lifestyle, or environmental, factors can play a large role in autoimmune diseases.<\/p>\n

\u2018If you just look at the concordance rate in twins (where both twins show the same trait), for instance for MS, it\u2019s only about 30% which is inherited. So the rest must be environment,\u2019 said Professor Markus Kleinewietfeld from the VIB Institute in Belgium.<\/p>\n

Many different environmental factors are suspected of affecting the risk of autoimmune conditions, including diet.<\/p>\n

Salt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Previous research<\/a>\u00a0by Prof. Kleinewietfeld and others have found that high-salt diets can affect our immune systems, including cells responsible for inflammation. Inflammation is an integral part of the defence against infection, however it can cause tissue and organ damage when sustained at high levels.<\/p>\n

The immune system is balanced carefully between cells that promote inflammation and the cells that regulate them. Prof. Kleinewietfeld suspected that diet might disrupt this balance, at least partly, both directly by impacting different immune cells and indirectly by altering the gut microbiome.<\/p>\n

\u2018We wanted to analyse how specific dietary factors could impact the gut microbiome and could relate to shifts in the immune system,\u2019 said Prof. Kleinewietfeld, who led the\u00a0ENVIROIMMUNE<\/a>\u00a0project to investigate the effects of salt.<\/p>\n

\u2018What we actually found, which was quite surprising, was that (the high-salt diet) depletes specifically beneficial microbes, like lactobacilli, in the gut.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lactobacilli are a common type of \u2018friendly\u2019 bacteria found in the gut. There are many lactobacillus species, including some used in the commercial production of yoghurt, cheeses and sauerkraut.<\/p>\n

\u2018We also did a little pilot study in humans, and that was also quite stunning because we could observe a depletion (of lactobacilli),\u2019 said Prof. Kleinewietfeld.<\/p>\n

Within just a few days, the researchers could\u00a0see differences<\/a>\u00a0in the people eating an extra six grams of salt a day. They not only had higher blood pressure, but more pro-inflammatory immune cells and fewer lactobacilli.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A smaller amount of lactobacilli in the gut has been linked to more pro-inflammatory immune cells. Image credit – Doc. RNDr. Josef Reischig, CSc.\/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Metabolites<\/strong><\/p>\n

On closer inspection, it appears that lactobacillus helps to keep the immune system in check by releasing compounds known as metabolites \u2013 by-products from its activity.<\/p>\n

\u2018We could show that this effect (the increase in pro-inflammatory immune cells) is likely based on shifts in the metabolites which are produced by the lactobacilli, because they have an in vitro suppressive effect on the immune cells. If you have less lactobacillus, then the suppressive effect is gone,\u2019 said Prof. Kleinewietfeld.<\/p>\n

This research is still at an early stage, and further work is needed to understand the long-term effects of a high-salt diet on the microbiome. These studies were done in healthy volunteers, and so it will be necessary to carefully test the impact that changes in diet would have in a particular disease.<\/p>\n

However, studying the microbiome is also yielding clues to the causes of autoimmune conditions without any treatments. One such example is primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). This rare disease causes blockages in the bile ducts, which in turn damage the liver.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s very frustrating that we have no therapy but liver transplantation,\u2019 said Dr Johannes Hov from the University of Oslo in Norway. \u2018It\u2019s actually the most common indication for liver transplantation in Norway.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gut<\/strong><\/p>\n

The cause of the condition is unclear, but there are signs that point to a link between autoimmunity and changes in the microbiome. Many patients with PSC have other autoimmune diseases, and some of the genes associated with the condition are also linked to autoimmunity. In particular, there is a strong link to the gut; up to 80% of patients also have inflammatory bowel disease.<\/p>\n

\u2018This suggests to us that something going on in the gut is important for the disease in the liver, and this really points towards the microbiome,\u2019 said Dr Hov, who spends half of his time researching the causes of the disease and the other half treating patients in hospital.<\/p>\n

Previous studies<\/a>\u00a0of the bacteria in the gut of PSC patients have found differences compared to healthy people.<\/p>\n

\u2018So that is the starting point; the microbiome is different, but we really do not know whether this is causing disease, or whether it\u2019s caused by the disease,\u2019 said Dr Hov.<\/p>\n

A partial answer to this question could come from studying people after their transplant. About a third of PSC patients develop the disease again within a few years, accumulating damage in their new liver.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think that\u2019s fairly strong proof that there\u2019s something coming from outside of the liver that\u2019s attacking the liver,\u2019 said Dr Hov. \u2018It\u2019s really a unique opportunity to follow the disease from the beginning.\u2019<\/p>\n

One suggestion for the cause is a leakage of microbial metabolites into the bloodstream, which goes straight from the gut to the liver. However, finding which metabolites are contributing to the disease is a difficult task; Dr Hov describes the gut microbiome as \u2018a biochemical factory\u2019.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0StopAutoimmunity<\/a>\u00a0project, he is using hundreds of samples collected over the years from patients with recurrence and comparing them to those who were cured by transplant.<\/p>\n

He is screening blood samples for thousands of different metabolites to find any patterns linked to the treatment outcome. From analysing patient samples pre-transplant, he has already found significant changes in how they metabolise certain essential nutrients, including some amino acids and B vitamins.<\/p>\n

\u2018So we speculate based on this, that the changes in the microbiome somehow reduce the access to essential nutrients, which could potentially influence the liver disease,\u2019 said Dr Hov.<\/p>\n

\u2018You can really do something with a microbiome: you can change it, perhaps treat it. So if you have a disease with no treatment, then this is a good place to look.\u2019<\/p>\n

-Dr Johannes Hov, University of Oslo, Norway<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Faecal transplants<\/strong><\/p>\n

If they find a metabolite that is driving the disease, then Dr Hov hopes that they could start a pilot trial to test therapies, such as probiotics or faecal transplants, to change the balance of gut microbes.<\/p>\n

\u2018You can really do something with a microbiome: you can change it, perhaps treat it. So if you have a disease with no treatment, then this is a good place to look,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

It is this hope that is driving more researchers to examine the role of the microbiome in disease. However, the mixture of populations of microbes in our bodies is complex and variable. Even if researchers like Prof. Kleinewietfeld and Dr Hov can pin down the precise mechanisms at fault, the challenge remains of how to reliably fix it. The prospect of manipulating the microbiome could offer a way to treat many conditions, but we are still only scratching the surface.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think there\u2019s so much more to come,\u2019 said Prof. Kleinewietfeld. \u2018But we are just beginning to understand how to use this knowledge in a therapeutic way.\u2019<\/p>\n

The research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The human immune system is powerful and complex. It must be on guard at all times and be able to distinguish friend from foe. Unfortunately, it does not always get it right and sometimes attacks the body\u2019s own cells, causing hundreds of \u2018autoimmune\u2019 diseases, from multiple sclerosis (MS) to rheumatoid arthritis. What causes the immune … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":1622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[106,374,381,37],"class_list":["post-1620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-diet","tag-disease","tag-gut","tag-health"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy gut bacteria are becoming key suspects in autoimmune diseases - Horizon Magazine Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1620\/why-gut-bacteria-are-becoming-key-suspects-in-autoimmune-diseases\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why gut bacteria are becoming key suspects in autoimmune diseases\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The human immune system is powerful and complex. 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