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This is why FMT works and why the microbiome matters

"Prof Kim Lewis and Dr Philip Strandwitz, from the antimicrobial discovery centre at Northeastern University in the US, commented: "It may seem surprising that a member of the human microbiota - the community of bacteria that inhabits the body - produces an antibiotic."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36910766
 
I'm not surprised with that mention as antibiotics largely come from fungus, and growths. That reminds me, i know that many suspect MAP bacteria, tuberculosis bacteria is behind Crohns.

Tuberculosis is a mycobacteria, with myco meaning fungus. I've seen a report that anti fungal medications were found effective against tuberculosis. Here is a mention on that:

"Antifungal drug kills TB bug"

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=2612

I had seen this mention before a few times in past readings. TB was largely eliminated before antibiotics came onto the scene. The cause for this hasn't been known, other than TB was often referred to as a poor mans disease. Those that ate meat and dairy products tended to not develop active TB.
 
It's probably one of the reasons it works. It also restores the butyric acid producing bacteria, and allows the gut to produce more butyric acid which tightens up intestinal tight junction proteins the regulate gut permeability(leaky gut) and has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Those bacteria likely produce more then one chemical that inhibits pathogens. Also I read studies that show the metabolites of human microbiome influence autophagy which help eradicate intercellular bacteria like AIEC and MAP. There is lots of stuff going on with the good bacteria which could turn IBD around.
 
This is great, thanks JMC!

I actually posted this in the MAP thread but copied it here. Interesting - that an underlying pathogen can cause the dysbiosis which in turn can cause the inflammation, and fecal transplants may correct that (not sure permanently but even in the transient case, it provides that benefit). Of course this in animals, but I think can perhaps explain the dysbiosis seen in humans infected with MAP.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27494144

Abstract:
PLoS One. 2016 Aug 5;11(8):e0160353. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160353.
Dysbiosis of the Fecal Microbiota in Cattle Infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis.
Fecteau ME1, Pitta DW1, Vecchiarelli B1, Indugu N1, Kumar S1, Gallagher SC1, Fyock TL1, Sweeney RW1.
Author information
Abstract
Johne's disease (JD) is a chronic, intestinal infection of cattle, caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). It results in granulomatous inflammation of the intestinal lining, leading to malabsorption, diarrhea, and weight loss. Crohn's disease (CD), a chronic, inflammatory gastrointestinal disease of humans, has many clinical and pathologic similarities to JD. Dysbiosis of the enteric microbiota has been demonstrated in CD patients. It is speculated that this dysbiosis may contribute to the intestinal inflammation observed in those patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the diversity patterns of fecal bacterial populations in cattle infected with MAP, compared to those of uninfected control cattle, using phylogenomic analysis. Fecal samples were selected to include samples from 20 MAP-positive cows; 25 MAP-negative herdmates; and 25 MAP-negative cows from a MAP-free herd. The genomic DNA was extracted; PCR amplified sequenced on a 454 Roche platform, and analyzed using QIIME. Approximately 199,077 reads were analyzed from 70 bacterial communities (average of 2,843 reads/sample). The composition of bacterial communities differed between the 3 treatment groups (P < 0.001; Permanova test). Taxonomic assignment of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified 17 bacterial phyla across all samples. Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes constituted more than 95% of the bacterial population in the negative and exposed groups. In the positive group, lineages of Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria increased and those of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes decreased (P < 0.001). Actinobacteria was highly abundant (30% of the total bacteria) in the positive group compared to exposed and negative groups (0.1-0.2%). Notably, the genus Arthrobacter was found to predominate Actinobacteria in the positive group. This study indicates that MAP-infected cattle have a different composition of their fecal microbiota than MAP-negative cattle.
 
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