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Viral Con Foils Drug-Resistant Microbes, May Nix Need For Poop Transplants (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the courtesy-flush dept.

schwit1 writes: The researchers, led by immunologists at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, got started on the idea of harnessing a viral decoy knowing that such germs normally manipulate and prune the gut microbiome. The community of viruses that bustle in human guts -- called the virome or microvirome -- trigger anti-microbial immune responses that can put the microbial communities on lock down, preventing new microbes from colonizing. Such a state of "colonization resistance" in the gut could thwart harmful germs from moving in, particularly when the microbiome is imbalanced and vulnerable after antibiotic treatments, the researchers hypothesized -- and they found they were right.

2 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Re: I think I understand TFS... by jouassou · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sometimes, after heavy antibiotics, important bacteria that you have in your intestines are wiped out by the antibiotics. To restore balance to your gut after heavy antibiotics, the usual option is to withdraw some poop from another person, and transplant that into your intestines, so that you get back the bacteria that are supposed to live there. TFA is about a way to prevent this from becoming necessary.

  2. Re:I think I understand TFS... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think it's talking about gut bacteria and using highly resistant beneficial bacteria to prevent harmful bacteria moving in

    No. The summary is so badly written that hard to tell what it is about, but the researchers tricked the mouse immune system into suppressing gut viruses so that the beneficial bacteria could recover faster after antibiotics. Here is a link to the paper.

    But what is a "Poop transplant"?

    Fecal bacteriotherapy