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The intestinal microbiome is a complex ecosystem of interconnected species. And, like any ecosystem, some organisms are predators and others prey. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women's hospitals and the Wyss Institute examines the impact of bacteriophages, viruses that infect and destroy bacteria.
They find that phage can have a profound impact on the dynamics of the intestinal microbiome, not only directly affecting certain species, but also having a cascading effect on others. Phage can also impact their human host by modulating their metabolites, including chemicals in the brain. The team, which includes lead author Bryan Hsu, Ph.D., and lead author, Pamela Silver, PhD, of the Wyss Institute, and Lynn Bry, MD, PhD, Brigham and director of the Mbadachusetts Host -Microbiome Center, published its results in Cell Host & Microbe.
"One of the main interests of my laboratory is to understand the changes in the dynamics of the intestinal microbiome. Bacteriophages are an important component of the microbiome but they have not been studied much yet, "said Georg Gerber, MD, PhD, MPH, co-director of the Mbadachusetts Host, co-director of the Mbadachusetts Host-Microbiome Center and Head of the Division of Computational. Pathology at the Brigham Pathology Department. "Some people are exploring phage therapy, using a phage to eliminate microbes, but phages are also found naturally in the intestines, coexisting with the rest of the ecosystem. We wanted to know what they were doing there.
To answer this question, the team colonized the entrails of mice with a defined set of human bacterial species, and then added phages, following the growth of each microbe. Using sequencing and high throughput badysis, the team found that the phage was causing wear and tear on the species they were prey to as expected, but with an effect training on the rest of the ecosystem, including the proliferation of non-targeted species.
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