Gut Microbiome Shapes Risk and Response in Rheumatoid Arthritis Save
In Genome Medicine, Mayo Clinic researchers investigated a cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, their relatives and a healthy control group analyzing the gut microbiome vial16S ribosomal DNA analysis of fecal samples. They showed that RA had decreased gut microbial diversity which correlated with disease duration and autoantibody levels. A dysbiosis was found with increased Actinobacteria, and that 3 species, Collinsella, Eggerthella, and Faecalibacterium, were unique to RA patients. Collinsella flora correlated with high levels of alpha-aminoadipic acid, asparagine and IL-17A. (Citation source http://buff.ly/29HMxua)
A second paper in Arthritis and Rheumatology examined the impact of gut bacteria in animal models by treating one group of arthritis-susceptible mice with Prevotella histicola and compared this to no treatment in like mice. The study found that mice treated with the bacterium had decreased symptom frequency and severity, and fewer inflammatory conditions associated with rheumatoid arthritis. They also noted changes in mucosal cellular subsets, antigen specific Th17 responses and IL-10 expression. The treatment produced fewer side effects.
These data suggest a potential diagnostic, staging and treatment benefit to microbiome characterization or manipulation.
Join The Discussion
If this is the case, then what is shaping our Microbiome in the first place. Is it food? Is it purely diet? Or do our emotions and stress levels have a part to play as we know that these definitely affect the gut? Do these things bear consideration in our understanding of the impact of Microbiome and thus its potential modification?
All good questions for which we have an incomplete understanding. If the microbiome is important then the next steps will be to figure out why and how it can be manipulated in a therapeutically advantageous way. Lets hope for more research like this. JC
Disclosures
The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose related to this subject
If you are a health practitioner, you may Login/Register to comment.
Due to the nature of these comment forums, only health practitioners are allowed to comment at this time.