Research in recent years has demonstrated the diverse roles that gut bacteria can play in health and disease, but what about contributions from viruses, which, like bacteria, perpetually reside within the human intestine?
Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital found that imbalances in the intestine’s viral community—called the virome—may promote inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
The research is published in Science Immunology and was conducted by Kate. L. Jeffrey et al.
IBD, which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation and is thought to be caused by a combination of genetics, an overactive immune system response, and environmental triggers.
In this study, the team isolated viruses from patient colon surgical tissue and found that viruses in a normal intestine had anti-inflammatory effects and contributed to a healthy gut.
Conversely, viruses isolated from the inflamed intestines of patients with IBD provoked inflammation.
The team says the fecal virome is altered in IBD, suggesting a role for viruses in the onset of these conditions.
The team categorized the viruses unique to patients with IBD so that their findings might be used in future research and clinical studies.
In additional experiments, the team found that mice whose normal intestinal viruses were replaced with viruses from healthy human colons were protected from intestinal inflammation.
However, mice whose intestinal viruses were replaced with viruses associated with IBD exhibited exacerbated inflammation.
The team says the intestinal virome is established from birth, shaped through life, and includes vast numbers of known viruses and copious ‘dark matter’ we cannot yet identify.
They say that patients with IBD might benefit from therapies that harness the virome, either through targeted elimination—with vaccines or antiviral medications—or replacement of disease-driving intestinal viruses with health-promoting viruses—such as with virome transfers, akin to fecal transfers.
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If you care about bowel health, please read studies about why some people are more likely to have bowel diseases and common food that could increase the risk of dangerous bowel diseases.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about a big cause of irritable bowel syndrome, and results showing this food may worsen inflammatory bowel diseases.
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