- Home-made FECAL transplants from my husband cured my ulcerative colitis – after 15 years of pain Daily Mail
- Man uses mom’s poop as treatment, experiences her menopause symptoms Insider
- A man gave himself poop transplants using his mom’s feces to treat his debilitating Crohn’s. Then he started e Business Insider India
- Man goes through menopause after DIY poo transplants from mum ‘cured’ his Crohn’s… The Sun
- A woman did more than 100 stool transplants to treat her ulcerative colitis — and it worked. What to know about fecal microbiota transplantation Yahoo Life
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: transplants
Northwestern Medicine surgeons perform rare ‘flipped organ’ double lung transplants for 2, including county commissioner – Chicago Sun-Times
- Northwestern Medicine surgeons perform rare ‘flipped organ’ double lung transplants for 2, including county commissioner Chicago Sun-Times
- Doctors perform rare double lung transplant on two patients with rare genetic condition WGN News
- Normal lungs successfully transplanted into bodies with reversed organs CNN
- Elgin woman, Cook County commissioner with ‘flipped organs’ receive double-lung transplants Daily Herald
- Two patients at Northwestern Medicine talk about their successful double lung transplants CBS Chicago
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Head Transplant Surgeon Claims Human Brain Transplants Are ‘Technically Feasible’
ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.
The human brain is an amazing piece of biological machinery responsible for everything from dreaming up Shakespeare’s sonnets to the muscle coordination of scoring a World Cup-winning goal. Yet, even if our brains remain spry into our old age, our bodies often don’t. What if we replaced them?
That’s the idea of controversial neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, who claims in a recent article that it could be “technically feasible” to stave off aging by simply scooping out a person’s brain and plopping it into a younger, more agile body. The article, called “Whole brain transplantation in man: Technically feasible” was published in Surgical Neurology International (SNI), a peer-reviewed journal where Canavero serves as an editor.
If this procedure is ringing any bells, it may be because Canavero put forward a similar idea in 2015 that proposed a full head transplant. The claim was bombastic, highly controversial, and, when he later said he had found a volunteer to undergo the procedure, became international news. It became such a sensation that it was part of a Metal Gear Solid–related conspiracy theory. Many doctors disregarded the procedure as not based in current science, and it has not been completed in a live human subject to date.
Canavero told Motherboard in an email that head transplants “work,” and that his previous work was just a stepping stone to a brain transplant.
“A human head transplant was the intermediate step towards a brain transplant. Since the latter is considered impossible, I decided to focus on HT [head transplant], which is far simpler,” Canavero said. “However, although I can tell you HT works, unfortunately it does not rejuvenate aged head tissues, including the eyes. BT [Brain transplant] is the only option.”
Canavero’s claims regarding head transplants have been difficult to verify. In 2017, SNI published work by Canavero and Chinese colleague Xiaoping Ren—who is also on SNI’s editorial board—reporting a head transplant rehearsal with human cadavers. A live volunteer subject, a Russian man with a genetic degenerative muscle atrophying disease, pulled out of the planned procedure in 2019. Also in that year, SNI published work by Canavero and Ren claiming to report successful spinal cord repair in animals.
Canavero told Motherboard he’s not free “to talk about the HT project that unfolded in China, other than saying it works.”
In his latest paper—which is co-edited by himself and Ren—Canavero describes how to theoretically remove one person’s brain to place it into the skull of either a clone or a donated and brain-dead “immunoconditioned” body. In addition to describing a “robotic scoop with retractable tines” that would pluck the brains from their skulls, Canavero also provides possible solutions to several outstanding questions surrounding brain transplants, including nerve and vascular reconnection methods.
“The unavailability of technologies that can successfully rejuvenate an aged body suggests that it is time to explore other options,” the paper notes. “Contrary to common lore, a full BT is achievable, at least theoretically. Of course, further extensive cadaveric rehearsals will be necessary, followed by tests in brain-dead organ donors (as e.g., done recently in kidney xenotransplants). New surgical tools will have to be developed. With appropriate funding, a long-held dream may finally come true.”
The ultimate goal of such a procedure would be to extend the number of years a person could enjoy living in a “pristine body,” Canavero writes in his paper. This reasoning is not dissimilar to that used by CRISPR advocates who propose using the technology on embryos to snip out unwanted genetics that may lead to physical or mental disabilities—a goal which some experts have flagged as being a revival of eugenics.
Problematic or not, there is big interest in extending human life, and an entire branch of science and pseudoscience dedicated to “transhumanism” and life extension, including among Silicon Valley elite. These methods include everything from taking specific substances to “young blood” transfusions, cryogenics, and attempts to recreate humans as immortal AI. Thus far, these attempts have not included having one’s brain transplanted into a clone of themselves.
There are still major questions about whether or not what Canavero proposes would ever actually work in a living human being (especially since part of the solution hinges on developing human clones), but his claims will surely continue to capture the interest—and horror—of the public.
Heart failure: Black patients less likely to get devices and transplants they need, study finds
CNN
—
There’s growing evidence that Black heart failure patients are less likely to get advanced therapies than White patients.
A study published Wednesday in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure finds that among a group of adults with heart failure, White people were twice as likely as Black people to receive a heart transplant or a ventricular assist device, a mechanical heart pump often used for patients with end-stage heart failure.
“The totality of the evidence suggests that we as heart failure providers are perpetuating current inequities,” Dr. Thomas Cascino, the study’s first author and a clinical instructor in the Division of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, said in a news release. “However, recognizing disparities isn’t enough. As physicians and health care providers, we must find ways to create equitable change.”
The researchers analyzed data on 377 adults being treated for heart failure in the United States, among whom 27% identified as Black, between July 2015 and June 2016.
The data showed that a heart transplantation or a ventricular assist device was performed in 11% of the Black patients compared with 22% of the White patients, although death rates were similar in both: 18% in Black patients and 13% in White patients.
The researchers noted that patients’ preferences for ventricular assist devices, heart transplantation or other therapies did not affect the results.
“This residual inequity may be a consequence of structural racism and discrimination or provider bias impacting decision-making,” the researchers wrote.
Experts in the field say the findings offer confirmation of what doctors have been seeing for years.
“I cannot say I’m surprised,” said Dr. Jaimin Trivedi, an associate professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine who has studied racial disparities among heart patients. He was not involved in the new research.
Trivedi’s recommendation for getting cardiovascular care is to be engaged in your own health journey. Your family or loved ones should be closely involved, too.
The new findings were also not a surprise to Dr. Dave Montgomery, a cardiologist at Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta.
“The study confirms what has been known for too long, which is that Black heart failure patients have worse outcomes, and that part of the reason for the worse outcomes is a gradient in the quality of care they are offered,” said Montgomery, who also was not involved in the new research.
“While I am not surprised to see the results of this study, I am encouraged by the new information that it provides. These data refute the idea that disparate heart failure outcomes have to do with things like the personal preferences of the patient,” he said. “The problem is not indistinct and unapproachable, as we may have believed in the past. Instead, it shows the distinct inroad to better care for all.”
People should be educated on how to advocate for themselves and ask for options, such as the ventricular assist device, that they might not know about, said Dr. Bessie Young, an adjunct professor in health systems and population health at the University of Washington.
“There’s just difficulty for certain groups of people to get some of these really life-saving procedures and transplants, and there has to be sort of systemic changes made as to who the gatekeepers are for these devices and how people think about how patients get these devices,” Young said.
Young, a health equities researcher who was not involved in the study, believes that it shows that the disparity is caused by social determinants such as education and access, rather than biological determinants.
As for the study’s implications for health care providers, she said, “there should be equity among people who get these resources, because they’re so limited. And that’s where you have to make sure that people are looking at how they’re assessing people to get a device or transplant, making sure that they’re using some sort of equity lens to do that.”
Faecal transplants to be offered to hundreds with antibiotic-resistant superbug | UK News
Hundreds of people with a hard-to-treat superbug are to be offered faecal transplants to tackle their infections.
A faecal microbiota transplant (FMT) involves taking healthy bacteria “in a mixture of prepared processed stool from a healthy donor” to the intestine of another person.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says the process should be considered for patients who have had two or more treatments for Clostridium difficile (C.diff) without success.
Treating these people with gut bacteria taken from a healthy person’s poo can help restore healthy gut bacteria, Nice said.
C.diff is a type of bacteria that can cause diarrhoea, and it often affects people who have been taking antibiotics.
The bug can usually be treated with a different type of antibiotic, but it is sometimes referred to as a “superbug” due to its resistance to treatment in some instances.
Nice said clinical trials have shown FMT treatment is significantly better than antibiotics alone at resolving a stubborn C.diff infection, and treatment using this method could save the NHS thousands of pounds.
Patients may need to take fewer antibiotics and have reported a better quality of life after treatment, it added.
‘Innovative’
The FMT section can be swallowed within a pill, or it can be delivered through a tube inserted directly into the stomach through the nose, or alternatively be deposited directly into the colon, also through a tube.
Mark Chapman, interim director of medical technology at Nice, said: “There is currently a need for an effective treatment of C.diff in people who have had two or more rounds of antibiotics.
“Our committee’s recommendation of this innovative treatment will provide another tool for health professionals to use in the fight against this infection, while at the same time balancing the need to offer the best care with value for money.
“Use of this treatment will also help reduce the reliance on antibiotics and in turn reduce the chances of antimicrobial resistance, which supports NICE’s guidance on good antimicrobial stewardship.”
Study
Nice said it made its decision to push ahead with FMT after reviewing evidence from five trials of 274 adults, which showed more C.diff infections were resolved with FMT, than antibiotic treatment, in four of the trials – and there was no difference in the other.
The data also showed the treatment can resolve up to 94% of infections.
FMT can be considerably cheaper than antibiotics if given as an oral capsule – saving more than £8,000; it can save hundreds of pounds if given as a colonoscopy, but it is more expensive when given as an enema.
Nice has estimated that 450 to 500 people in England could be treated using FMT for multiple recurrences of C.diff infections each year.
It said a strict donor screening programme should be in place and that treatments should be manufactured in accordance with human medicine regulations.
All donors will be been screened in advance to ensure the stool provided is healthy and tested for a wide array of viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, which also includes screening for COVID-19.
MIT’s new human liver model reveals how it regenerates, providing hope for patients to avoid transplants
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), engineers developed a new liver tissue model to help reveal the stages of liver regeneration in hopes to help those individuals with liver disease, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers said by finding an effective way to stimulate the liver to regenerate on its own, some liver transplants could potentially be avoided and it may help a donated liver grow after being transplanted, according to a media release from MIT.
Liver experts told Fox News that most patients who need liver transplants are often those diagnosed with chronic diseases such as viral hepatitis, primary biliary Cholangitis (PBC), cancer or fatty liver disease. The researchers hope that by learning how to utilize the liver’s regenerative properties, doctors will have more options for treating chronic liver diseases.
A view of the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology on July 08, 2020, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
According to MIT, even if 70 % of the liver is removed, the remaining tissue can still regrow to its full size within months. Meredith Stone is a 50-year-old healthcare professional who was diagnosed with primary biliary cholangitis, an autoimmune disease that attacks the bile ducts of liver and damages the liver. Stone was not part of the study but shared that she now has cirrhosis of the liver, despite not drinking alcohol for over 20 years. Stone told Fox News that she is currently taking medications such as ocaliva and ursodial hoping to slow the progression of the disease and prevent a liver transplant.
“I heard about this study and prayed that these researchers can find a way to help the liver regenerate. It would give such piece of mind.” Stone added, “Not much research is going on for PBC and I just hope they find a way to help my liver regenerate as well as other people dealing with devastating liver disease.”
NEW STUDY GIVES HOPE FOR TREATMENT OF PBC, THE SILENT LIVER DISEASE
Researchers have used studies from mice to understand the regeneration pathways that occur after liver injury or illness. According to the report, one key factor is the reciprocal relationship between cells found in the liver called hepatocytes and the cells that line blood vessels called endothelial cells. The researchers explained that hepatocytes produce factors that help blood vessels develop, and endothelial cells generate growth factors that help hepatocytes proliferate. The investigators also said that previous studies in mice found that blood flow is another component in sparking regeneration of the liver.
3D Illustration of Human Body Organs Anatomy (Liver)
(ISTOCK)
The MIT researchers wanted to model liver regeneration interactions, so they teamed up with Christopher Chen, MD, PhD, the William F. Warren distinguished professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, who designs microfluidic devices with channels that act like blood vessels.
The researchers grew blood vessels along one of these microfluidic channels and then added aggregates derived from liver cells taken from human organ donors.
They developed a chip designed so that molecules such as growth factors can flow between the blood vessels and the liver spheroids, according to the release. This design allowed the investigators to knock out genes of specific cell types and see how it affects the overall regenerative process.
Sangeeta Bhatia, who is a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science said in the release, “For years, people have been identifying different genes that seem to be involved in mouse liver regeneration and some of them seem to be important in humans, but they have never managed to figure out all of the cues to make human liver cells proliferate.”
LISTERIA OUTBREAK MAY BE LINKED TO FLORIDA, CDC SAYS
This “regeneration on a chip” model showed that increased fluid flow on its own did not stimulate the liver cells to begin dividing, which is part of the cycle involved in liver regeneration. But they did find that if they also provided an inflammatory signal, called the cytokine IL-1-beta, the liver cells did enter the division cycle, the release said.
The investigators also blocked a gene in the endothelial cells that is responsible for making prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), a molecule that is also involved in liver regeneration in zebrafish. By blocking the gene in these cells, they were able to demonstrate that this molecule stimulates the human liver cells to enter the cell division cycle, according to the report.
Liver transplant Surgeons during a liver transplant.
(AnalÛgico)
The team plans to explore some other growth factors and molecules that are produced on their model during liver regeneration. They also hope to find the signals that tell the liver when to stop regenerating.
“Right now when patients come in with liver failure, you have to transplant them because you don’t know if they’re going to recover on their own. But if we knew who had a robust regenerative response, and if we just needed to stabilize them for a little while, we could spare those patients from transplant,” Bhatia said in the MIT release.
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Bhatia hopes the team of researchers will be able to harness molecules to help treat patients with liver failure. The investigators also said that another possibility is that doctors could potentially use biomarkers to determine the likelihood that a patient’s liver will regrow on its own.
Ingenious Technique Leads to Kids Having Kidney Transplants Without Immune Suppression
Organ transplants can quite literally save lives, but they also come with strings attached – often including a lifetime of immunosuppression drug treatments required to keep the immune system in check, lest it reject the transplanted organ as a foreign invader.
Now scientists are reporting on three successful kidney organ transplants, carried out in children in California, without the need for immune suppression. The transplants used a new method that minimizes the risk of the new kidney getting rejected.
This means freedom from immunosuppressants and the associated side effects, which aren’t always pleasant (and include an increased risk of cancers and diabetes). It also reduces the chance of a second transplant being required due to rejection of the first one.
“Safely freeing patients from lifelong immunosuppression after a kidney transplant is possible,” says Alice Bertaina, an associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford University in California.
The innovative technique works by safely transplanting the donor’s immune system into the patient – via stem cells from bone marrow – before the kidney also moves over: dual immune/solid organ transplant or DISOT. This has been tried before, but with a limited amount of success.
Here, an extra process was added. The researchers performed an alpha-beta T cell and CD19 B-cell depletion, which meant removing the types of immune cells that cause graft-versus-host disease or GVHD – a potentially lethal complication that has been at risk of developing when similar techniques have been used in the past.
With a reduced threat of GVHD, the process was much safer. The removal of the alpha-beta T cells is relatively ‘gentle’, making it suitable for medically vulnerable children, and it enables genetically half-matched transplants (from a parent). The removed cells recover naturally in the patient in 60-90 days, building up the immune system again.
Other tweaks were made, including a reduction in the toxicity of the chemotherapy and radiation treatment required before the transplant. Still, some pretty grueling preparation work is required to knock out the immune system of the patient and get the body prepared for receiving a new organ.
The three children given the kidney transplants in this way have an extremely rare genetic disease called Schimke immuno-osseous dysplasia (SIOD), which restricts the body’s ability to fight off infection and can lead to kidney failure.
“This remarkable experience underscores the potential of combined or sequential hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation and kidney transplantation to correct disorders of hematopoiesis and immunodeficiency and to induce tolerance of the kidney allograft,” write Thomas Spitzer and David Sachs from Massachusetts General Hospital in an accompanying editorial.
“SIOD is a rare disorder that involves immunodeficiency, which undoubtedly contributed to the achievement of successful donor HSCT engraftment.”
While SIOD and all of its complications remains something the children have to deal with, they are now all the owners of kidneys that are working as they should be. The transplants have been successful for at least 22 and 34 months, the researchers report.
“These were unique patients in which we had to do the stem cell transplant and a kidney transplant,” says Bertaina.
“They are doing everything: they go to school, they go on vacation, they are doing sports. They are having completely normal lives.”
The next steps are to expand the number of patients and the number of conditions that this could work for, since for now it’s only been demonstrated in patients with SIOD, making them especially suited to the procedure.
Of particular interest to the research team are patients who have already had a kidney transplant rejected by their bodies. That happens in up to half of all cases in children, leading to hypersensitized immune systems that most likely wouldn’t accept a second kidney through a normal transplant procedure.
Children will be the first to benefit, then the researchers are going to work up to older ages. Eventually, the technique could even be adapted to cover transplants of organs other than kidneys, but it’s going to take a while.
“That’s a challenge, but it’s not impossible,” says Bertaina.
The research has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Fecal Transplants Reverse Hallmarks of Aging in the Gut, Eyes, and Brain
In an experiment on mice, transplanting fecal microbiota from young into old reversed hallmarks of aging in the gut, eyes, and brain
In the quest for eternal youth, poo transplants may seem like an unlikely way to reverse the aging process.
However, scientists at the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia have provided evidence, from research in mice, that transplanting fecal microbiota from young into old mice can reverse the hallmarks of aging in the gut, eyes, and brain.
In the reverse experiment, microbes from aged mice induced inflammation in the brain of young recipients and depleted a key protein required for normal vision.
These findings show that gut microbes play a role in regulating some of the detrimental effects of aging and open up the possibility of gut microbe-based therapies to combat the decline in later life.
Prof Simon Carding, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School and head of the Gut Microbes and Health Research Programme at the Quadram Institute, said: “This ground-breaking study provides tantalizing evidence for the direct involvement of gut microbes in aging and the functional decline of brain function and vision and offers a potential solution in the form of gut microbe replacement therapy.”
It has been known for some time that the population of microbes that we carry around in our gut, collectively called the gut microbiota, is linked to health. Most diseases are associated with changes in the types and behavior of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes in an individual’s gut.
Some of these changes in microbiota composition happen as we age, adversely affecting metabolism and immunity, and this has been associated with age-related disorders including inflammatory bowel diseases, along with cardiovascular, autoimmune, metabolic, and neurodegenerative disorders.
To better understand the effects of these changes in the microbiota in old age, scientists from the Quadram Institute transferred the gut microbes from aged mice into healthy young mice, and vice versa. They then looked at how this affected inflammatory hallmarks of aging in the gut, brain and eye, which suffer from declining function in later life.
The study, published in the journal Microbiome, found that the microbiota from old donors led to loss of integrity of the lining of the gut, allowing bacterial products to cross into the circulation, which results in triggering the immune system and inflammation in the brain and eyes.
Age-related chronic inflammation, known as inflammaging, has been associated with the activation of specific immune cells found in brain. These cells were also over-activated in the young mice who received aged microbiome transplants.
In the eye, the team also found specific proteins associated with retinal degeneration were elevated in the young mice receiving microbiota from old donors.
In old mice, these detrimental changes in the gut, eye and brain could be reversed by transplanting the gut microbiota from young mice.
In ongoing studies, the team is now working to understand how long these positive effects can last, and to identify the beneficial components of the young donor microbiota and how they impact on organs distant from the gut.
The microbiota of young mice, and the old mice who received young microbiota transplants were enriched in beneficial bacteria that have previously been associated with good health in both mice and humans.
The researchers have also analyzed the products which these bacteria produce by breaking down elements of our diet. This has uncovered significant shifts in particular lipids (fats) and vitamin metabolism, which may be linked to the changes seen in inflammatory cells in the eye and brain.
Similar pathways exist in humans, and the human gut microbiota also changes significantly in later life, but the researchers caution about extrapolating their results directly to humans until similar studies in elderly humans can be performed.
A new facility for Microbiota Replacement Therapy (MRT), also known as Faecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) is being built in the Quadram Institute that will facilitate such trials, as well as other trials for microbiota-related conditions.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Aimee Parker from the Quadram Institute said: “We were excited to find that by changing the gut microbiota of elderly individuals, we could rescue indicators of age-associated decline commonly seen in degenerative conditions of the eye and brain.
“Our results provide more evidence of the important links between microbes in the gut and healthy aging of tissues and organs around the body. We hope that our findings will contribute ultimately to understanding how we can manipulate our diet and our gut bacteria to maximize good health in later life.”
The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.
‘Fecal microbiota transfer between young and aged mice reverses hallmarks of the aging gut, eye, and brain’ is published in the journal Microbiome.
Reference: “Fecal microbiota transfer between young and aged mice reverses hallmarks of the aging gut, eye, and brain” by Aimée Parker, Stefano Romano, Rebecca Ansorge, Asmaa Aboelnour, Gwenaelle Le Gall, George M. Savva, Matthew G. Pontifex, Andrea Telatin, David Baker, Emily Jones, David Vauzour, Steven Rudder, L. Ashley Blackshaw, Glen Jeffery and Simon R. Carding, 29 April 2022, Microbiome.
DOI: 10.1186/s40168-022-01243-w
Fecal Transplants Reverse Hallmarks of Aging
Summary: Transplanting fecal microbiota from young mice to older mice reversed hallmark signs of aging in the gut, brains, and eyes. Transplanting the fecal microbiota from old to young mice had the reverse effect, inducing inflammation in the brain and depleting a key protein associated with healthy vision.
Source: University of East Anglia
In the search for eternal youth, poo transplants may seem like an unlikely way to reverse the aging process.
However, scientists at the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia have provided evidence, from research in mice, that transplanting fecal microbiota from young into old mice can reverse hallmarks of aging in the gut, eyes, and brain.
In the reverse experiment, microbes from aged mice induced inflammation in the brain of young recipients and depleted a key protein required for normal vision.
These findings show that gut microbes play a role in the regulating some of the detrimental effects of aging and open up the possibility of gut microbe-based therapies to combat decline in later life.
Prof Simon Carding, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School and head of the Gut Microbes and Health Research Program at the Quadram Institute, said: “This ground-breaking study provides tantalizing evidence for the direct involvement of gut microbes in aging and the functional decline of brain function and vision and offers a potential solution in the form of gut microbe replacement therapy.”
It has been known for some time that the population of microbes that we carry around in our gut, collectively called the gut microbiota, is linked to health. Most diseases are associated with changes in the types and behavior of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes in an individual’s gut.
Some of these changes in microbiota composition happen as we age, adversely affecting metabolism and immunity, and this has been associated with age-related disorders including inflammatory bowel diseases, along with cardiovascular, autoimmune, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders.
To better understand the effects of these changes in the microbiota in old age, scientists from the Quadram Institute transferred the gut microbes from aged mice into healthy young mice, and vice versa. They then looked at how this affected inflammatory hallmarks of aging in the gut, brain and eye, which suffer from declining function in later life.
The study, published in the journal Microbiome, found that the microbiota from old donors led to loss of integrity of the lining of the gut, allowing bacterial products to cross into the circulation, which results in triggering the immune system and inflammation in the brain and eyes.
Age-related chronic inflammation, known as inflammaging, has been associated with the activation of specific immune cells found in brain. These cells were also over-activated in the young mice who received aged microbiome transplants.
In the eye, the team also found specific proteins associated with retinal degeneration were elevated in the young mice receiving microbiota from old donors.
In old mice, these detrimental changes in the gut, eye and brain could be reversed by transplanting the gut microbiota from young mice.
In ongoing studies, the team are now working to understand how long these positive effects can last, and to identify the beneficial components of the young donor microbiota and how they impact on organs distant from the gut.
The microbiota of young mice, and the old mice who received young microbiota transplants were enriched in beneficial bacteria that have previously been associated with good health in both mice and humans.
The researchers have also analyzed the products which these bacteria produce by breaking down elements of our diet. This has uncovered significant shifts in particular lipids (fats) and vitamin metabolism, which may be linked to the changes seen in inflammatory cells in the eye and brain.
Similar pathways exist in humans, and the human gut microbiota also changes significantly in later life, but the researchers caution about extrapolating their results directly to humans until similar studies in elderly humans can be performed.
A new facility for Microbiota Replacement Therapy (MRT), also known as Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) is being built in the Quadram Institute that will facilitate such trials, as well as other trials for microbiota-related conditions.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Aimee Parker from the Quadram Institute said: “We were excited to find that by changing the gut microbiota of elderly individuals, we could rescue indicators of age-associated decline commonly seen in degenerative conditions of the eye and brain.
See also
“Our results provide more evidence of the important links between microbes in the gut and healthy aging of tissues and organs around the body. We hope that our findings will contribute ultimately to understanding how we can manipulate our diet and our gut bacteria to maximize good health in later life.”
About this microbiome and aging research news
Author: Press Office
Source: University of East Anglia
Contact: Press Office – University of East Anglia
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Closed access.
“Fecal microbiota transfer between young and aged mice reverses hallmarks of the aging gut, eye, and brain” by Aimée Parker et al. Microbiome
Abstract
Fecal microbiota transfer between young and aged mice reverses hallmarks of the aging gut, eye, and brain
Background
Altered intestinal microbiota composition in later life is associated with inflammaging, declining tissue function, and increased susceptibility to age-associated chronic diseases, including neurodegenerative dementias. Here, we tested the hypothesis that manipulating the intestinal microbiota influences the development of major comorbidities associated with aging and, in particular, inflammation affecting the brain and retina.
Methods
Using fecal microbiota transplantation, we exchanged the intestinal microbiota of young (3 months), old (18 months), and aged (24 months) mice. Whole metagenomic shotgun sequencing and metabolomics were used to develop a custom analysis workflow, to analyze the changes in gut microbiota composition and metabolic potential. Effects of age and microbiota transfer on the gut barrier, retina, and brain were assessed using protein assays, immunohistology, and behavioral testing.
Results
We show that microbiota composition profiles and key species enriched in young or aged mice are successfully transferred by FMT between young and aged mice and that FMT modulates resulting metabolic pathway profiles. The transfer of aged donor microbiota into young mice accelerates age-associated central nervous system (CNS) inflammation, retinal inflammation, and cytokine signaling and promotes loss of key functional protein in the eye, effects which are coincident with increased intestinal barrier permeability. Conversely, these detrimental effects can be reversed by the transfer of young donor microbiota.
Conclusions
These findings demonstrate that the aging gut microbiota drives detrimental changes in the gut–brain and gut–retina axes suggesting that microbial modulation may be of therapeutic benefit in preventing inflammation-related tissue decline in later life.
1 child dead, 17 need liver transplants in ongoing acute hepatitis outbreak
Health officials from around the world are trying to figure out why children are being stricken by acute cases of hepatitis – a disease of the liver.
The World Health Organization reported on Saturday that as of April 21, 2022, “at least 169 cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin have been reported from 11 countries.”
The children ranged in age from 1 month to 16 years. Seventeen of them needed a liver transplant and one child died.
WHO said cases have been reported in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (114), Spain (13), Israel (12), the United States of America (9), Denmark (6), Ireland (<5), The Netherlands (4), Italy (4), Norway (2), France (2), Romania (1), and Belgium (1).
“It is not yet clear if there has been an increase in hepatitis cases, or an increase in awareness of hepatitis cases that occur at the expected rate but go undetected. While adenovirus is a possible hypothesis, investigations are ongoing for the causative agent,” WHO said.
WHO said it has not been determined if there is a link between the cases.
Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory to health care providers and public health officials recommending they test for adenovirus in children who have hepatitis but the cause is not known.
The CDC said that in November it was notified of five pediatric patients in Alabama “with significant liver injury, including three with acute liver failure, who also tested positive for adenovirus. All children were previously healthy. None had COVID-19.”
“A possible association between pediatric hepatitis and adenovirus infection is currently under investigation,” the CDC said.
According to the CDC, “Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver that can be caused by viral infections, alcohol use, toxins, medications, and certain other medical conditions. In the United States, the most common causes of viral hepatitis are hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C viruses.
Signs and symptoms of hepatitis include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, light-colored stools, joint pain and jaundice.
“Adenoviruses are viruses that spread by close personal contact, respiratory droplets, and fomites. There are more than 50 types of immunologically distinct adenoviruses that can cause infections in humans.
Adenoviruses most commonly cause respiratory illness but depending on the adenovirus type they can cause other illnesses such as gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, cystitis, and, less commonly, neurological disease. There is no specific treatment for adenovirus infections.
Adenovirus type 41 commonly causes pediatric acute gastroenteritis, which typically presents as diarrhea, vomiting, and fever; it can often be accompanied by respiratory symptoms.
While there have been case reports of hepatitis in immunocompromised children with adenovirus type 41 infection, adenovirus type 41 is not known to be a cause of hepatitis in otherwise healthy children.”