Veja, Brazil’s leading newsmagazine discusses John Cryan's research

1 Sep 2014

"Soon, we will take medicinal compounds from bacteria to treat depression, instead of Prozac," says physician and neuroscientist John Cryan, who studies the relationship between the human microbiome and the brain at University College Cork, Ireland.

Link to Brazil’s leading newsmagazine VEJA Article here

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Healing by bacteria

The study of micro-organisms in our body revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases such as obesity, cancer and diabetes

In our body, there are ten bacteria per cell. Together, these 100 trillion micro-organisms weigh around 2 pounds - about 500 grams more than our brain. And it is from these tiny but powerful microbes that a revolution is happening in medicine. The identification and study of the human microbiome - the name given to this group of bacteria - can, in less than a decade, transform the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases such as obesity, cancer, diabetes and mental disorders.

"Soon, we will take medicinal compounds from bacteria to treat depression, instead of Prozac," says physician and neuroscientist John Cryan, who studies the relationship between the human microbiome and the brain at the University College Cork, Ireland. "We are studying the functioning of this in humans, but the results are promising and the science is advancing so fast in this field that in a year or two, we should have scientific publications capable of producing this type of drug."

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Human Microbiome Project - Knowledge about the bacteria that make us up is recent. At least since the early twentieth century, scientists have known that bacteria that live in our body helps in digestion and absorption of energy. What the researchers did not know is that the number of microbes living with us and was so vast that its action goes beyond the breakdown and production of substances in our body and can be instrumental in fighting disease and even our behavior.

The starting point for this discovery were two studies published in 2004 about the performance of these micro-organisms on the behavior and development of frameworks of obesity. Japanese researchers showed that mice biologically altered to grow without any bacteria exhibited very high levels of stress hormones. In the United States, a team of scientists showed that the same type mice tended to be thinner than normal animals - and gaining weight if they received the bacteria from a common mouse. Was the trigger for several groups around the world were interested in the subject, which could be the missing piece for understanding chronic diseases like diabetes or Alzheimer's.

Three years later, the National Institutes of Health USA (NIH, its acronym in English) began the Human Microbiome Project, with the goal of mapping all the bacteria in our body. Using the knowledge of DNA sequencing in the Genome Project, also NIH, 80 research institutions showed that we are formed of more bacteria than cells. These first reports, published in 2012, will be compiled and deciphered until 2015, when it ends the program that has already cost 153 million dollars (about 350 million dollars) from the American government. In Europe, a consortium of institutions from eight countries began in 2008 the same work.

Together, the data from these two projects caused the explosion in the number of studies on the impact of bacteria on human health. In 2004, the PubMed site, which compiles scientific publications internationally recognized, recorded 166 studies. Only the first eight months of 2014, 2,141 surveys were published on the subject - twelve times more than ten years ago.

"We live in a new understanding of what are the diseases and maintaining health," says Dan Waitzberg gastroenterologist, professor at the University of São Paulo (USP). "Recent studies have shown that our body has about 500 bacteria that had never been seen. This is an extremely unknown field and that is bringing many revelations for medicine."

Medical progress - According Waitzberg, the knowledge that will come from the analysis and interpretation of the microbiome will have a profound impact on all fields of health. "In about five years, more powerful gene sequencing machines will be able to map the composition of bacteria in each individual. With it, you can improve the diagnosis and prevention of diseases because of the lack or multiplication of some groups of microbes can indicate the presence or potential development of disease, "says the doctor.

Furthermore, knowledge of the type of bacteria present in our body will also produce new drugs to treat diseases that are still a challenge for scientists, such as diabetes or cancer. The focus of the researchers is in probiotics, that is live bacteria consumed in the form of yogurt, fermented milk and capsules normally used to improve digestion, drugs or combining specific types of bacteria to act directly on the disease. Scientists already know that people with colon cancer have major changes in gut bacteria that segment. Thus, this balance microbiome through a single tablet could be a way to prevent the incidence of the disease and prevent its growth.

"Over the next three years, there will be many new probiotic on the market - there are already some atAnvisa awaiting approval They will be support for the diet, which has great influence on microbiome and will be modulated to improve health and prevent disease." says Waitzberg.

Another promising field is being study by the Brazilian Caetano epidemiologist Luis Antunes, a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro group. In a survey published in late July in the Journal of the American Society for Microbiology, Ali demonstrated how a substance produced by one of the groups of bacteria in the gut is able to block the infection caused by Salmonella.

"These molecules produced by microbes of the body to prevent infections brings great therapeutic potential. Likewise they prevent Salmonella would combat any other type of infection," said Antunes. "They are trillions of bacteria, thousands of species that can generate hundreds of exciting new products for our health."

The goal of the lab Antunes, one of the only in Brazil dedicated to studying the human microbiome, is to develop new treatments for tuberculosis. "If we find bacteria in the respiratory tract that produce molecules capable of fighting this disease, we can develop additional treatment.'ll Be a support for the doctors and an alternative when antibiotics do not effect, as in the case of multi-resistant bacteria."

Combating obesity - The relationship of the human microbiome with obesity and human behavior are the two areas with more advanced searches. A few years ago, scientists know that there is a close relationship between obesity and changes in intestinal flora.

The progression of these surveys, which will determine whether it is an obese body that produces changes in the intestinal microbiome or otherwise may transform the way to combat the global epidemic that affects nearly one-third of the population, and provide clues about the functioning of diseases to it, such as diabetes. Recent studies, however, show that our gut bacteria can have a much more complex operation than a simple cause and effect. They could manipulate the human eating behavior for certain types of food.

A study published in early August in periódio BioEssays, by researchers at the University of California in San Francisco and the University of New Mexico, in the United States, showed that producing toxins, hormones and neurotransmitters similar to humans, the bacteria may be able to our mood change or influence the transmission of impulses to the brain starvation. So they could have a good diet for them and bad for us.

"We are beginning to see obesity as a problem that has to do with our bacteria, not only with diet. Believe they have motive and means to change our behavior. And these effects can cause obesity," said Dr. Joe Alcock, researcher at the University of New Mexico and an author of the study. "However, we do not know if it would be an important microbiome to disease and other eating disorders or just one of the factors involved in obesity causes."

Domain healthy - With the same handling mechanism, the bacteria in our body can play a key role in disorders such as stress, depression or autism. Studies led by neuroscientist John Cryan, since 2009, show that the gut microbiota has great influence on brain development. And therefore in our mood, emotions and behavior.

"Animal biologically modified bacteria are grown without changes in brain development, memory and behavioral changes such as increased anxiety and stress responses, showing an autistic profile. And found that some probiotics, or certain types of bacteria, such as Lactobacillus have a positive effect on the mind, reducing stress and anxiety, "says Cryan.

This is because the bacteria send information to neurons in several ways: in addition to hormones and neurotransmitters that produce, they also have influence on the vagus nerve, which transmits information from the gut to the brain. Therefore, ensuring a healthy microbiota from the beginning of life may be critical for the proper development of the mind and emotions.

"Some of the most important ways to acquire a healthy microbiome is through natural childbirth and breastfeeding, in which the mother transmits their bacteria to the baby. Moreover, the overuse of antibiotics in childhood affect the development of bacteria," says the scientist.

Cryan's lab is doing the first tests of probiotics that can treat depression in humans. In one or two years, he hopes to have published works that can be the basis for what he called psicobióticos - types of probiotics with beneficial effects for the behavior. Would be one way to ensure that the domain bacteria appear to exert over us, is, at least, healthy.

"I think our diet, we know that influences our mood, combined psicobióticos that act directly on the microbiome, will be the best way to improve our health, intelligence and cognition in the future," says Cryan.