Gut bacteria used liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) to organize themselves into condensates, which allowed them to adapt to nutrient deprivation, enabling them to colonize the gut. In experiments reported in the March 17, 2023, issue of Science, investigators showed that a mutant of the beneficial gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron was “highly defective in competitiveness, in its ability to colonize the mammalian gut,” senior author Eduardo Groisman told BioWorld. “Our paper provides the first example in which [LLPS] matters in bacterial host interactions.”
The intestinal microbiota could protect against HIV infection. At the 30th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) last week, a group of scientists from Duke University presented data showing a preventive effect of two bacteria from the Lachnospiraceae family, the species Clostridium immunis and Ruminococcus gnavus against HIV. These microorganisms strongly inhibited HIV replication in vitro through the metabolic pathway of tryptophan and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor.
When oxygen levels of the intestine increase, the appropriate hypoxic conditions for intestinal microbiota are lost. This state may be caused by immune-mediated malfunction of the intestinal epithelium. By controlling oxygen levels, the imbalance in the intestinal microbiome (dysbiosis) can be reduced.
Scientists have identified proteins that changed in response to exercise specifically in trial participants whose blood sugar control improved after taking up an exercise regimen. Based on serum protein analysis, the investigators also developed a machine-learning algorithm that could predict whether an individual’s metabolic sensitivity would be improved by exercise.
A study by researchers in Spain suggests that current metagenomic analyses of the microbiome can yield erroneous results, largely due to the incomplete databases that are used to identify microbial DNA sequences. A team led by Clemente Fernández Arias and Federica Bertocchini at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas, Madrid, evaluated current microbiome analysis techniques on computer simulations of microbial communities in a report published on Feb. 8 in PLOS ONE.
A study in a mouse model of tau protein build-up in the brain, similar to that seen in later stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD), shows that changes to the microbiome in these animals can impact the degree and progression of neurodegeneration observed. As reported in the Jan. 12, 2023, study published in Science, the researchers found that mice that were germ free and those given antibiotics to change their gut microbiome early in life had significant reductions in brain atrophy compared with those with a standard microbiome.
Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) has announced the founding of Rose Biosciences, a biotech company pioneering a new approach to obesity treatment based on a discovery at MCW.
Covira Inc., a spinout from The University of Chicago, has closed its first dilutive funding via an oversubscribed $1.0 million seed round after raising $9.1 million of nondilutive funding.
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