The Microbiome, considered another organ of our body due to its multiple functions

In today’s article we bring you a recurring and at the same time very interesting topic.
Recently, we talked about the importance of social relationships to promote the richness of our microbiome.
Today we will focus on other points related to this same topic in order to shed light on an issue that affects and interests us all.

The beginnings

The initial colonization of the human gut microbiota begins in utero and is strongly influenced by microbial exposures at birth. Initial seeding and development of this microbial community can have long-term physiological consequences.

The gut microbiota is considered one of the key elements that contribute to the regulation of host health.
Practically all places in our body are colonized by microorganisms.
Due to the development of molecular tools and techniques (metagenomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, metatranscriptomics), the complex interactions that occur between the host and the different microorganisms are being progressively deciphered.
Today, deviations of the gut microbiota are linked to many diseases, including obesity, type II diabetes, hepatic steatosis, intestinal diseases, and several types of cancer. Therefore, it is suggested that several pathways involved in immunity, energy, lipid metabolism, and glucose are affected.

Changes in the microbiota

Low-resolution longitudinal studies in 14 infants (Palmer et al., 2007) and high-resolution studies in a single infant (Koenig et al., 2011) have documented the gradual increase in phylogenetic diversity, non-random community assemblage, the effects of introducing food to the table, and the large taxonomic changes that can occur during infancy.
Other high-resolution studies examined the developmental lack of dynamics of the infant gut microbiome in children with severe acute malnutrition.
These last children that were studied exhibited a decrease in the “maturity of the microbiota”.
This demonstrates that events in the early development of the microbiome may play a role in promoting susceptibility or protection against disease later in life.

In the study cited below, numerous molecular mechanisms are discussed that explain how gut bacteria may be causally related to protection or the occurrence of disease.
Together, understanding the complexity and molecular aspects that link gut microbes to health will help lay the groundwork for new therapies that are already being developed. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326789

Microbiota versus disease

Associations between gut microbiome composition and disease status have been widely reported, while recent studies have demonstrated a role for the gut microbiome in influencing remote organs, mucosa, and immune function.

Currently, efforts are focused on understanding the natural history of microbiome development in humans in the context of health outcomes, in parallel with improving our knowledge of microbiome-host molecular interactions.
These efforts aim to develop effective approaches to rehabilitate disturbed human microbial ecosystems as a means of restoring health and preventing disease.

The aim of this review is to describe the associations between gut microbiome composition and various types of chronic diseases and discuss links with usual diet and dietary components. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-021-00991-6

The stability of the microbiome

A notable aspect of a healthy individual’s gut microbiome is how stable it is.
Despite daily changes in food sources, alcohol consumption, sleep habits, and other behaviors that have been shown to affect the composition of the microbiome, barring major disturbances (e.g., antibiotics or infections), 90% of gut strains persist for one year and approximately 60% persist for five years.

Traits that stand out in survival (oxygen tolerance and sporulation) are thought to promote persistence in the environment or among additional hosts and thus greater reliance on horizontal transmission pathways.
It is likely that a wider variety of traits are involved in other aspects of gut microbiota persistence.
Some may favor a single route of transmission, such as genes involved in pH or responses to osmotic stress or binding to a particle type; host colonization may require certain adhesion factors; and maintenance within a host may involve genes involved in immune evasion, metabolism, or microbial antagonism, to suggest a few.

The mutagenesis of transposons of human microbes introduced into a mouse harboring a simplified human microbiome has revealed that the traits involved in nutrient competition are the most important for host colonization.
Such experiments are connecting what we know about the genetic traits that give pathogens better transmission and colonization with the characteristics exploited by diners within the gut.

It will also be important to determine what role dispersal strategies play in the microbiomes of patients with various diseases.
The authors show that children acquire an increasing number of persistent organisms in their gut microbiomes until around age 10, fostering the notion that these long-lived organisms serve as a “second genome.”

The maintenance of Bacteroides species has been shown to be important for gut aging, but the lingering bacteria within the inflamed gut may differ more widely than those in the healthy human gut and likely rely on a set of different colonization factors to sustain themselves.

Overall, a better understanding of gut microbiota persistence and dispersal strategies will improve our knowledge about the evolution and assembly of the gut microbiome and help design therapeutic manipulations of our gut communities.

A study of fecal samples from 37 healthy U.S. adults sampled 2 to 13 times up to 296 weeks apart revealed that they harbored 195 ± 48 bacterial strains, representing 101 ± 27 species.
On average, their individual microbiota was remarkably stable, with 60% of the strains remaining over the course of 5 years.
Stability followed a power law that, when extrapolated, suggests that most strains in an individual’s gut reside for decades.

Members of Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria are significantly more stable components than the average population.

Another sample from a calorie-restricted dietary study showed that weight stability is a significantly better predictor of microbiota stability than the time interval between samples.
After generating clonally ordered collections of anaerobic bacteria from frozen fecal samples collected from six stable-weight individuals sampled 7 to 69 weeks apart, draft genomic sequences were generated for 534 isolates representing 188 strains and 75 species.

The strains, defined as isolates, which share >96% of their genomic content, were maintained over time within an individual and between family members, but not between unrelated individuals.
Thus, early gut colonizers, such as those acquired from our parents and siblings, have the potential to exert their physiological, metabolic, and immunological effects for most of our lives, and perhaps for all of us. DOI: 10.1126/science.1237439

Variation in the human gut microbiome can reflect the host’s lifestyle and behaviors and influence the levels of disease biomarkers in the blood.
Understanding the relationships between gut microbes and host phenotypes is critical to understanding wellness and disease.

In the study cited below, associations between gut microbiota and 150 host phenotypic characteristics were examined in approximately 3400 individuals.
Main axes of taxonomic variation in the gut and a maximum of diversity were identified.

The results suggest potential opportunities for specific interventions that alter the composition of the microbiome to improve host health.
Variation in the human gut microbiome can reflect the host’s lifestyle and behaviors and influence the levels of disease biomarkers in the blood.
Understanding the relationships between gut microbes and host phenotypes is critical to understanding wellness and disease. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18871-1

Active Flora

Active Flora is a dietary supplement from Salengei’s Active Supplements range.
It has an important component that unifies bacterial strains useful for our body.
It is Megaflora 9 evo, a bacterial mixture with one billion units per gram of product.
Contains Bifidobacterium lactis, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus planta rum, Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactococus Lacti.,

With the daily incorporation of two capsules into our supplement routine, we will be adding bacteria that work synergistically in our body, helping in the effect of probiotics and optimizing results for the consumer.

The state-of-the-art technology of Megaflora 9 evo allows bacteria to be preserved for up to 48 months at room temperature.
The number of bacteria declared corresponds to the level of live bacteria that reach the intestine after overcoming the acidic environment of the stomach.

Active Flora, with Megaflora 9 evo has demonstrated the ability to counteract dysbiosis phenomena by rebalancing the intestinal flora, maintaining the barrier effect and promoting the integrity of the intestinal mucosa, which in turn allows the maintenance of absorption processes and homeostasis between the individual and their intestinal microbiota.