The annoying buzz of pesky little mosquitoes. At this time of year, the sound can be heard in backyards all around the world. Due to emerging threats like Zika and Dengue virus, people are becoming more and more familiar with the harm these little devils can cause. While vaccines and treatments for many mosquito-borne illnesses remain elusive, some researchers are placing new hope in other micro-organisms who may be able to play a role in preventing these dangerous diseases.
Previous work focused on malaria and its vector, the anopheline mosquitoes, has implicated micro-organisms, such as bacteria or fungi, within the mosquito to have an effect on the mosquito's ability to transmit the disease. Numerous studies in both Anopheles stephensi and Anopheles gambiae have shown that microbes in their midguts can influence the malarial parasite's ability to develop and transmit to new hosts. This is also not a new concept in the Aedes mosquitoes, the vectors for many of the mosquito-borne viruses. Wolbachia bacteria have been successfully introduced multiple times into these mosquitoes to prevent infection in the past.
Most previous studies have focused on introducing microbes to adult mosquitoes. In the field, this naturally presents challenges with application as adult mosquitoes are constantly migrating from place to place. However, recent work highlights that similar strategies could be used on mosquito larvae to influence their ability to transmit disease as adults. Larvae are much more targetable, due to the relative ease of identifying larval development sites.
In the latest study of the mosquito microbiota and its effects on vectorial capacity (the ability of a vector, like the mosquito, to transmit a particular disease), researchers found that differences in bacterial colonization of larvae could have an effect on the adult mosquito's traits. This means that by changing the bacteria larvae are exposed to, you could influence their ability to transmit disease as adults.
While there are many environmental concerns that will need to be addressed before a strategy altering the bacterial make-up of mosquito breeding sites, this new study and the growing body of work focusing on the mosquito microbiome's effects on vectorial capacity offer hope for new strategies to control disease spread. Perhaps some day we will be able to add a simple pellet of bacteria to a pool of water with mosquito larvae and prevent all the subsequent adults from transmitting disease. This may seem like a far-fetched dream today, but with continued research, it could one day be a reality.
Showing posts with label microbiome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label microbiome. Show all posts
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Sunday, May 21, 2017
The Stressed-out Microbiome
Stress. It's something we encounter every day. People teach workshops and write books on how to deal with it. We spend countless hours and dollars trying to avoid it. But it's still there. Stress is as much a constant in our world today as the air around us. We all know that stress can have negative impacts on mental well-being, but we are just beginning to realize the effects stress can have on other bodily systems, and the effect these systems can have on our ability to deal with stress. Recent research has shown that the microbiome can be significantly affected by and play a major role in our response to stress.
The microbiome is the group of microbes (bacteria, fungi, archaea, etc.) that colonize a particular area of the body. The gut microbiome has been a population of intense research for quite a few years now. With increasing technology, we've begun to learn more and more about this population. We know that at homeostasis, each person has a specific microbial population that makes up their gut microbiome. This helps keep us healthy, keeping our digestive system running smoothly and ensuring successful processing of the food we eat. But in times of disease or stress, the microbiome in the gut can change dramatically, causing symptoms from loss of appetite to ulcers.
How exactly does stress change what's living in your intestines? It's all because of the gut-brain communications. This is achieved through neural projection pathways, neuroendocrine signaling, and entero-endocrine signaling, among other pathways. Your body uses messaging through the neurons and small chemical messengers in the form of endocrine signals to communicate over long distances, such as from the brain to the gut. In return, the gut uses the same mechanisms to send feedback to the brain. The microbes in the gut, however, can also produce chemical messages that get sent to the brain. When your body experiences stress, different chemical signals are sent to the gut; this can, in turn, cause some microbes to die and allow other microbes to take their place. The change in the composition of microbes can then change the chemical signals sent back to the brain. In this way, there is an intimate connection between the signalling input from the brain and the feedback the brain receives. These signals are essential to support mood, higher cognitive function, and behavior.
Work in animal models has highlighted the influence of stress on the gut microbiome and the subsequent influence of the microbiome on behaviors. For example, when mice are raised in a germ-free environment (no microbiome), the mice show reduced anxiety-like behaviors as compared to mice that are not raised in a germ-free environment. It has also been shown that the microbiome of the mice has an influence on the development of the amygdala, a region of the brain that plays a vital role in controlling behavioral and physiological responses to stress stimuli. The germ-free mice showed increased amygdala volume, suggesting an increased ability to handle stress. Additional studies have found that early-life stress can change an animal's microbiome for the rest of its life and that microbiome transplantation from depressed rats to healthy rats can lead to anxiety-like behaviors in the healthy rats.
All the interest in the microbiome and stress has led to new insights for the treatment of stress-related behaviors through microbiome alteration. Allowing colonization with particular species of bacteria, for example Lactoacillus helveticus and Bifdobacterium longum in both rats and humans, has been shown to reduce psychological distress. Additionally, treatment with oligosaccharides, such as fructo-oligosaccharide or galacto-oligosaccharide in mice, can have anti-depressant effects by allowing different populations of microbes to thrive on these nutrient sources.
While the microbiome still holds many mysteries, we are beginning to understand just how important its functions are in our every day lives. So the next time you're feeling stressed out, you might want to check in with your microbes and see how they're feeling. They may play a critical role in getting you through this stress and on with your life without allowing long-term health complications, like depression, anxiety disorders, or inflammatory bowel disease, to develop. The best ways to keep a healthy microbiome are to eat a healthy diet, with emphasis on fibers that support the development of beneficial bacteria, take probiotics, stay physically active, and avoid antibiotics whenever possible. Or, simply change your lifestyle to reduce your stress level. However it is achieved, a healthy microbiome can be a great advantage in the years ahead.
The microbiome is the group of microbes (bacteria, fungi, archaea, etc.) that colonize a particular area of the body. The gut microbiome has been a population of intense research for quite a few years now. With increasing technology, we've begun to learn more and more about this population. We know that at homeostasis, each person has a specific microbial population that makes up their gut microbiome. This helps keep us healthy, keeping our digestive system running smoothly and ensuring successful processing of the food we eat. But in times of disease or stress, the microbiome in the gut can change dramatically, causing symptoms from loss of appetite to ulcers.
How exactly does stress change what's living in your intestines? It's all because of the gut-brain communications. This is achieved through neural projection pathways, neuroendocrine signaling, and entero-endocrine signaling, among other pathways. Your body uses messaging through the neurons and small chemical messengers in the form of endocrine signals to communicate over long distances, such as from the brain to the gut. In return, the gut uses the same mechanisms to send feedback to the brain. The microbes in the gut, however, can also produce chemical messages that get sent to the brain. When your body experiences stress, different chemical signals are sent to the gut; this can, in turn, cause some microbes to die and allow other microbes to take their place. The change in the composition of microbes can then change the chemical signals sent back to the brain. In this way, there is an intimate connection between the signalling input from the brain and the feedback the brain receives. These signals are essential to support mood, higher cognitive function, and behavior.
Work in animal models has highlighted the influence of stress on the gut microbiome and the subsequent influence of the microbiome on behaviors. For example, when mice are raised in a germ-free environment (no microbiome), the mice show reduced anxiety-like behaviors as compared to mice that are not raised in a germ-free environment. It has also been shown that the microbiome of the mice has an influence on the development of the amygdala, a region of the brain that plays a vital role in controlling behavioral and physiological responses to stress stimuli. The germ-free mice showed increased amygdala volume, suggesting an increased ability to handle stress. Additional studies have found that early-life stress can change an animal's microbiome for the rest of its life and that microbiome transplantation from depressed rats to healthy rats can lead to anxiety-like behaviors in the healthy rats.
All the interest in the microbiome and stress has led to new insights for the treatment of stress-related behaviors through microbiome alteration. Allowing colonization with particular species of bacteria, for example Lactoacillus helveticus and Bifdobacterium longum in both rats and humans, has been shown to reduce psychological distress. Additionally, treatment with oligosaccharides, such as fructo-oligosaccharide or galacto-oligosaccharide in mice, can have anti-depressant effects by allowing different populations of microbes to thrive on these nutrient sources.
While the microbiome still holds many mysteries, we are beginning to understand just how important its functions are in our every day lives. So the next time you're feeling stressed out, you might want to check in with your microbes and see how they're feeling. They may play a critical role in getting you through this stress and on with your life without allowing long-term health complications, like depression, anxiety disorders, or inflammatory bowel disease, to develop. The best ways to keep a healthy microbiome are to eat a healthy diet, with emphasis on fibers that support the development of beneficial bacteria, take probiotics, stay physically active, and avoid antibiotics whenever possible. Or, simply change your lifestyle to reduce your stress level. However it is achieved, a healthy microbiome can be a great advantage in the years ahead.
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