Cure8 research brief
The study suggests that in IBD the gut microbiome’s functional impact on immune signalling is shifted toward inflammation even when composition appears similar to controls.
That could explain inflammatory behaviour not captured by standard microbiome composition tests and points toward function-focused microbiome therapies.
Researchers, clinicians interested in microbiome-based interventions, and IBD patients following microbiome research.
This preprint reports that while overall gut bacterial composition differed little between people with IBD and non-IBD controls, the functional impact of the microbiome on immune signalling was shifted toward pro-inflammatory effects in IBD.
The authors used faecal water applied to NF-κB and STAT3 reporter systems and screened thousands of bacterial isolates to identify taxa and metabolic pathways that increase inflammatory signalling.
The study found fewer bacterial isolates that suppressed NF-κB/STAT3 signalling in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease compared with controls, and more isolates that activated these pathways.
Metagenomic pathway analyses linked inflammatory signalling to multiple metabolic pathways (amino acid, carbohydrate, lipid, cofactor, nucleotide metabolism) and specific KEGG pathway signatures.
These results suggest the same or similar bacterial communities can have different immunomodulatory functions in IBD, and that profiling patient-specific microbial immunomodulatory function (MIF) could inform precision microbiome therapies.
Preprint (not peer reviewed). Results are mechanistic and based on reporter assays, isolate screens, and metagenomic pathway analysis; they do not establish clinical benefit or treatment effects.
Review the original publication for the complete reporting, methods, and context.
This Cure8 brief is based on source text from the linked article. Cure8 is informational only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
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