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Microbial clues to a liver disease

Treatment options are limited for alcoholic hepatitis, a liver disease associated with high alcohol intake. Studies in mice reveal that the microorganisms responsible for this condition can be tackled by a viral treatment.
  1. Martha R. J. Clokie

    1. Martha R. J. Clokie is in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.

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In 1984, the microbiologist Barry Marshall notoriously used himself as an experimental subject for his research, and drank the contents of a flask containing the bacterium Helicobacter pylori as part of his efforts to demonstrate that bacteria cause stomach ulcers1. Writing in Nature, Duan et al.2 do not report taking such drastic action to investigate a bacterial connection to disease. Nevertheless, their careful analysis of a liver disease called alcoholic hepatitis, in studies of mice and analysis of samples from people who have the disease, also provide attention-grabbing evidence for the involvement of a suspected bacterial culprit.

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Nature 575, 451-453 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03417-3

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