The Microbiome
Hey y’all! Now that you’re familiar with who I am, it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of microbiology. Most importantly, answering the question: what exactly is the microbiome? For starters, a Cleveland Clinic article describes the gut microbiome as a collection of microorganisms that live in your intestinal tract, which can contain trillions of them. There are countless different kinds of microorganisms that are part of the gut microbiome, but some of the main organisms are fungi, parasites, bacteria, and viruses. While hearing that you have trillions of these scary sounding organisms might be frightening (it definitely threw me off!) it is actually incredibly important to our survival and health that these microorganisms survive and thrive within us. Each of our microbiomes are specially unique to us, like a super weird and complicated fingerprint, and keeping them in balance is necessary.
But what is so important about the microbiome? Well, one key role of the gut microbiome is to aid in digestion by helping break down certain parts of our diet that the body can’t handle too well. Even more interesting, is the existence of the gut-brain axis. This complex system is an evidence-backed communication system between the microorganisms of the gut, and the neurons of our brain! A Nature article, gives an in depth breakdown of this bidirectional communication, but here is a brief breakdown. Essentially, the gut and the brain communicate through a few different systems, including but not limited to: the immune system, circulatory system, neuroendocrine system, and more. Crazy right?! Through this connection, the gut can affect the brain and the brain can affect the gut. The article even states that some preliminary research has linked changes in the gut microbiome to a variety of disorders like anxiety, depression, and neurogenerative diseases.
Neuropods
An interesting cell studied recently that relates to the gut-brain axis is the neuropod. A neuropod is an epithelial cell that is capable of almost instantly relaying sensory signal from the gut to the brain. What is so cool about this is scientists are learning more each day about how much our brain relies on our gut and just how much they communicate between each other. I never would have guessed that the key to our brains is through the stomach, even though the key to my heart is through my stomach…
The main protein that neuropods sense in the gut is flagellin. Flagellin is a protein that gives bacteria these funky little tails that help them move around. Once flagellin is detected by the neuropods, they zap up a signal telling the brain to chill out on the food. They do this through the vagus nerve which helps with a lot of general communication between the brain and the body (not so fun fact: I actually have an overactive vagus nerve that can trigger fainting in certain situations).
Bad Microbiomes and Autoimmunity
To wrap it all up, let’s dive into how a bad microbiome can affect autoimmunity. An interesting approach to this concept is the hygiene hypothesis. This states that the more we are exposed to as young children helps build a diverse and healthy microbiome that will protect us as we age. This article discusses how the microbiome can affect various disorders specifically, diabetes. It tested mice and showed that a bad gut microbiome can cause diabetes. Woah!
Another type of autoimmune disease I wanted to highlight is Celiac disease. Specifically, because it has a very clear connection to the gut microbiome. This article, found that a few different metabolites and their disruption are related to the development of Celiac disease. This made a lot of sense to me as to how different disease develop and how they are linked to the microbiome.
Karson Does Micro 