What’s the link between gut microbiome and type 2 diabetes risk? A study offers clues.
- Of the approximately 530 million adults worldwide
who have diabetes, about 98% have type 2 diabetes.
- Several factors can increase a person’s type 2
diabetes risk.
- Recently, scientists have been examining the gut
microbiome as a possible link to heightened risk for type 2 diabetes.
- Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital
have identified specific bacterial strains and viruses that can cause
functional changes to the gut microbiome that are correlated with
heightened type 2 diabetes risk.
Of the about 530 million adults around the world living with diabetes,
approximately 98% have type 2 diabetes —
a condition where the body develops resistance to insulin which
is needed to process blood glucose properly. Insulin resistance can cause a
person’s blood sugar levels to remain high.
Several factors play a
role in whether a person develops type 2 diabetes or not, including age, family history,
and ethnicity, as well as modifiable risk factors such as obesity and sedentary lifestyle.
Recently, scientists
have been examining what role the gut microbiome may
play in increasing a person’s risk for type 2 diabetes.
One such set of
researchers hails Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, where their
recently published study in Nature Medicine identified specific bacterial strains and viruses that can cause
functional changes to the gut microbiome that are correlated with heightened
type 2 diabetes risk.
Gut
microbial strains and type 2 diabetes
For this study, researchers
analyzed data from the Microbiome and Cardiometabolic Disease Consortium
(MicroCardio) that included 8,117 gut microbiome metagenomes from
ethnically and geographically diverse participants, including the U.S., China,
Israel, and Germany.
“Although research over
the past decade has linked changes in the gut microbiome to the development of
type 2 diabetes, earlier studies have been too small and varied in design to
provide solid conclusions,” said Daniel (Dong) Wang, MD, ScD, assistant professor of medicine in the Channing
Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard
Medical School, associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard,
assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School
of Public Health, and co-corresponding author of this study.
“There’s still a
significant gap in understanding the mechanisms, especially the biological
pathways encoded by specific microbial strains, that underlie the connection
between the gut microbiome and type 2 diabetes,” Wang told Medical News Today.
“Moreover, previous
research has focused on microbial species, but it’s actually the strains that
are the relevant targets for potential interventions,” Wang continued. “To
address these gaps, we initiated this study with a large, diverse, and
international population to search for more definitive answers.”
Increased
Prevotella copri in the type 2 diabetes gut
At the study’s
conclusion, Wang and his team reported finding several microbial species, as
well as their functions within the gut microbiome, linked to the development of
type 2 diabetes.
For example, researchers
identified a strain of the gut microbe Prevotella copri (P.copri), which is able to produce large amounts of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), that was more commonly seen in the gut microbiome of people with type
2 diabetes.
“The
discrete genetic structure and population-specific distributions of different
strains of P. copri are well-documented in the microbiome field. However, the
implication of these strain distributions in human health remains unexplored,
so study on this topic is significant because P. copri is one of the most
abundant microbial species in the human gut, and our previous research
demonstrated that it can predict individual responses to a healthy diet.
For
the first time, this current study found that the individuals’ carriage of
different P. copri strains can explain between-individual differences in type 2
diabetes risk.”– Daniel (Dong) Wang, MD, ScD
“Additionally, we
discovered that P. copri strains linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes
have an increased ability to produce branched-chain amino acids, metabolites
that could potentially lead to type 2 diabetes, which provide a functional
explanation to why individuals carrying certain strains have higher risk of
type 2 diabetes,” he added.
Bacteriophages
viruses may increase diabetes risk
Wang and his team also
discovered evidence suggesting that bacteriophages —
viruses that only infect bacterial cells — might also be driving changes to
specific bacterial strains in the gut microbiome, driving increased type 2
diabetes risk.
“Few studies have studied
the role of bacteriophages in chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes; most
previous research focused on their role in infectious diseases,” Wang
explained. “Our study is novel because we discovered that bacteria infected by
bacteriophages can have different functions related to type 2 diabetes
pathology. This infection could be a significant driving force in the evolution
of different microbial strains.”
“Our
study is the first project from this international consortium on the human
microbiome and cardiometabolic health that my group is leading (MicroCardio
Consortium). We’ve demonstrated the significant potential of combining a large,
diverse population with novel analytical methods to generate new biological
insights. We plan to maintain and expand this consortium, extending our
research to other disease areas.”– Daniel (Dong) Wang, MD, ScD
“Additionally, we will
go deeper into mechanisms, such as comprehensively studying bacteriophages and
horizontal gene transfers in all gut bacteria and their implications in
modifying inflammation response and insulin resistance at the local level — gut
environment — and systematically,” Wang added.
Future
research on gut microbiome
After reviewing this
study, Rudolph Bedford, MD, a board-certified gastroenterologist at Providence
Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, told MNT that
researchers have been investigating the gut microbiome and how it may affect or
cause diabetes for some time now.
“My take on it is that
there is likely something to it and that insulin sensitivity may
be regulated dependent upon the type of bacteria that is within the gut,
considering that these bacteria are what are used to process many of the foods
and byproducts, such as fatty acids, may certainly affect insulin sensitivity,
so to speak,” Bedford explained.
Bedford said it is
important for researchers to continue to look for factors that may increase a
person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, such as changes within the gut
microbiome.
“We might be able to
modulate their bacterial flora with certain things such as probiotics, possibly dietary
modifiers, in terms of regulating the gut microbiome in certain positive ways,”
he continued. “I’d like to see the effect of probiotics on the development of
insulin sensitivity as it pertains to the bacterial flora of the gut and to see
whether or not utilizing probiotics maybe we might be able to alter the course
of some patients who are prediabetic and see
whether or not we do have an effect on their insulin sensitivity.”
No comments:
Post a Comment