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A gut feeling about immunity

Nature Medicine volume 21, pages 674–676 (2015)Cite this article

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As it becomes evident that the microbiome exerts an influence on the human immune system, scientists have begun to ponder therapies that might act on intestinal microbes to reduce harmful inflammation. Roxanne Khamsi reports.

Hazen and his colleagues have found that these animals, which cannot further metabolize TMA into a more harmful compound called trimethylamine N-oxide, are protected against certain cardiovascular ailments associated with inflammation—and he'd like to exploit this finding to one day help humans as well. He is far from alone in his quest. In the past few years, scientists around the world have tinkered with metabolites and the gut microbes that make them to try to mitigate inflammatory disorders ranging from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, to heart disease and liver disorders. They've also gained insight in laboratory studies as to how gut microbes can influence ailments that involve aberrant immune signaling in distant organs, such as asthma, gout and diabetes.

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  1. Roxanne Khamsi is the chief news editor of Nature Medicine in New York.,

    Roxanne Khamsi

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Khamsi, R. A gut feeling about immunity. Nat Med 21, 674–676 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3906

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