Meat, MS and the microbiome
Eating more meat, and changes in the blood, immune system and gut ecology
all correlate with worse MS symptoms
Date:
January 27, 2022
Source:
University of Connecticut
Summary:
Eating more meat, having less of certain bacteria in the gut, and
more of certain immune cells in the blood, all link with multiple
sclerosis, reports a team of researchers. The work teased out
subtle connections that could lead to a better understanding of
the causes of the disease.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Eating more meat, having less of certain bacteria in the gut, and more
of certain immune cells in the blood, all link with multiple sclerosis,
reports a team of researchers led by UConn Health and Washington
University School of Medicine. The work, published in the 27 January
issue of EBioMedicine, teased out subtle connections that could lead to
a better understanding of the causes of the disease.
========================================================================== Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease affecting fewer than
3 million people worldwide but costing $28 billion annually in the US
alone -- and untold suffering. MS is more prevalent in specific regions, particularly the northern mid-latitudes, suggesting that geography is
somehow linked to the disease, perhaps involving diet. But teasing out
the exact relationships between diet, immune response and MS has been difficult. MS is most obviously an autoimmune disease in which the body
attacks the insulation surrounding its nerves. When the insulation
is damaged enough, the nerves begin to misfire and malfunction like
wires with frayed insulation. But what triggers the body to attack the insulation in the nervous system in the first place is unknown.
More and more evidence has suggested that bacteria might be involved. The bacteria living in our guts can affect our immune system. And what we
eat can affect the bacteria in our guts. Dr. Yanjiao Zhou at UConn
Health School of Medicine collaborated with Dr. Laura Piccio from
Washington University and now at the University of Sydney to study the gut microbiome, immune systems, diet, and blood metabolites in 49 volunteers
-- 25 MS patients and 24 healthy controls -- to look for correlations
that might be subtle but important.
"We found a number of gut bacteria associated with MS and severity of disability of MS patients. We also found increased autoimmune markers
and signature metabolites in MS. But what is really interesting is
how these systems connect with each other, and how diet is involved in
these connections.
Using multi-OMICS approaches, we try to close the loop and show the associations between multiple systems," says Zhou.
"This is the first study using an integrated approach to analyze the
interplay between diet, gut microbiome, the immune system and metabolism
and their contribution to disease pathogenesis and progression in
people with MS. It opens a new modality to address future scientific
questions by not looking at one individual factor, but at their complex interactions. This approach can lead to the identification of relevant
networks that could be manipulated for disease prevention or therapeutic intervention," says Piccio.
The strongest systemic linkage the researchers found involved eating meat.
Their analysis linked higher meat consumption to a decrease in
the population of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron in people's gut
ecology. B. thetaiotaomicron is associated with digesting carbohydrates
from vegetables.
Higher meat consumption, which was observed in the MS patients, was
also linked to an increase in T-helper 17 cells in the immune system,
and an increase in S- adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) in their blood.
The relationship between meat eating and disability and the other factors
was not deterministic; some healthy people eat a lot of meat. But the
pattern of all the factors was suggestive that, in MS, something goes
wrong with people's gut bacteria that dissociates them from the immune
system, leading to heightened T-helper 17 cells and autoimmune attacks
on the nervous system. And it tends to be associated with meat eating.
In the future, the team would like to expand the research to include
more people, including those with a more severe form of MS. Eventually
they hope to understand more of the cause-and-effect between diet,
bacterial ecosystems in the gut, and immune response, and potentially
help prevent or mitigate MS symptoms in people suffering from the disease.
This research was funded by Strategic Pharma-Academic Research Consortium (SPARC) Awards.
special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Connecticut. Original
written by Kim Krieger. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Saumya Shah, Alberto Locca, Yair Dorsett, Claudia Cantoni,
Laura Ghezzi,
Qingqi Lin, Suresh Bokoliya, Hunter Panier, Cassandra Suther,
Matthew Gormley, Yue Liu, Emily Evans, Robert Mikesell,
Kathleen Obert, Amber Salter, Anne H Cross, Phillip I. Tarr, Amy
Lovett-Racke, Laura Piccio, Yanjiao Zhou. Alterations of the gut
mycobiome in patients with MS.
EBioMedicine, 2021; 71: 103557 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103557 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220127104246.htm
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