Mysteries of the Microbiome: Researchers seek answers!

If you told someone who wasn’t a microbiologist that their body was full of bacteria they might be scared, but what they don’t know is that bacteria is an essential component of human health. The microbiome is constantly being researched and recently there have been many exciting discoveries that could change the way we look at the gut.  According to an article written by Andy Corbley from the Good News Network, “A new paper awaiting peer-review from Harvard Medical School has found evidence that the human microbiome has a greater power of detecting disease and predicting mortality than the current applications derived from genetic mapping”. The researchers at Harvard looked into 47 studies that connected the microbiome to human disease. They then compared those findings to 24 studies that connected genetics to human disease. The researchers concluded that according to the studies they analyzed, the microbiome was a better predictor of disease than the human genome. 

The article highlights the microbiome’s potential with diseases like Type 2 Diabetes and colorectal cancer but also warns that there is more research to be done. While these diseases have a somewhat obvious link to the gut, other diseases such as Major Depressive Disorder have also been linked to the microbiome. This was surprising to me as I was researching because I have always thought of depression as a disease of the mind and not a disease of the body. The Drug Target Review discussed multiple studies that have attempted to link the microbiome to MDD. I was shocked to read that “the gut contains the largest number of neurons in the body, outside of the brain”. This changed the perception I have of depression and my understanding of the human body as a whole.

One of the studies that stood out the most to me was about the impact of prebiotics and probiotics. There is a type of medication called psychobiotics that helps with depression by giving patients specific probiotics. The support done for this medication comes from both animal and human trials that measured cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone, along with some other indicators. The trials found that when appropriate pre- and probiotics were administered there were lower cortisol levels in the urine. This evidence supports the claim that altering the microbiota can also alter mental health. I think that this is really interesting and could be a really exciting step to help those who suffer from MDD. I hope that more research into the microbiota’s link to both physical and mental disease will result in new treatment options for many conditions.