Microbiome: The “Newest” Organ in Our Bodies

February 16th, 2020

This week I thought I would dive into the topic of the Microbiome. This is something that you may or may not have heard of yet. If you have not heard about it yet, you will probably start hearing about it a lot more because it is a very up incoming area in the world of scientific research. With this blog I will give you a quick introduction into what the microbiome is and how it influences our health.

What Is the Microbiome?

In my Microbiology class my teacher Dr. Crammer described the our microbiome as, “all the microorganism that live in or on us”. More broadly this term just refers to all the different microorganisms that live in a specific environment. But the majority of the time when discussing microbiome in relation to the human body, we are looking at microbiome of our gut. Dr. Crammer further went on to explain how the microbiome is like a new organ, in the sense that it interacts and plays an important role in our body’s health. However, it is not until recently did we realize the importance of this “new organ”. Scientist and researchers used to think that the microbiome was only composed of bacteria, but now we see that it includes not only bacteria but, archaea and eukarya as well as many others. And to give you a sense of how many there are, there is an estimated 3 bacteria cells for every 1 human cell, which is a lot and that doesn’t even cover all the other microorganisms.

The Microbiome and Health:

Now you are probably wondering what is so important about all of these microorganism inside of us or you might even feel a little grossed out. The microbiome’s role in our health is an emerging topic of research and more and more findings are coming out as we speak. Scientist have identified that the microbiome can be a key modulator in our health. When are microbiome is out of balance, in a state known as ‘dysbiosis’, can cause many diseases or other health related issues to occur. This is why many have coined the microbiome as an “essential” new organ for our health. Various research is being conducted on many different connections of health issues to the microbiome. For example, connections to how the microbiome can influence: depression, obesity, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and many others. Additionally, the microbiome has been shown to interact with some drugs and influence their effectiveness. Researchers are looking at ways to possibly engineer certain species in the microbiome or the microbiome as a whole in efforts to stop or prevent certain diseases. These microorganism can help us in many ways, by producing certain by-products that we can use or helping with our immune response, or it can be harmful to us by enhancing certain pathogenic bacteria or aiding in the progression of some diseases.

The Microbiome and Cardiovascular Disease:

There are many connections that are being researched and I thought I would talk a little more about one of them. I am very interested in the cardiovascular system which is why I decided to chose to focus on the interaction of the microbiome and some cardiovascular diseases. Recent research has shown that there is an association with the composition of microbiome and atherosclerosis  and arterial stiffness markers. They hypothesize that certain metabolites, products of metabolism, that are produced from some microorganism are are found in patients who suffer from this disease. This is very important because these metabolites can be tested for and can possibly serve as biomarkers for atherosclerotic diseases. This could possibly help doctors know sooner if their patient is suffering from this disease. It has also been found that atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ACVD) have been characterized by the increase in Enterobacteriaceae and Streptococcus, two species found in our microbiome. This could also serve as another biomarker. More research is being done to find the exact role that these to microorganisms play in these diseases. These findings highlight the importance of a balanced microbiome and its affect on our health, as it is shown that an unbalanced microbiome can influence certain heart disease among other things.

Conclusion:

I hope you all learned a little about the microbiome and its importance in our health. I think this is a very cool new area of science that will continue to be explored for years and years to come. It is so amazing to me how these microorganisms have such a vast influence on many health factors. I think as more and more findings come out we will be better able to use this to our advantage to help with the prevention of many diseases that affect many in our country and around the world. Thank you for reading this week and keep a look out for the next blog. Until next time !