microbial flora (microbiome)

^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Introduction

community of microorganisms, including prokaryotes, viruses, & microbial eukaryotes, that populate the human body

detection of DNA & RNA from certain microbes distinguished people with cancer from those without
- hepatitis C virus is linked to liver cancer
- papillomavirus is linked to cervical cancer
- Fusobacterium species might be linked to colon cancer
- microbial signatures may exist for other cancers^[2]

feces of people with Alzheimer's disease transplanted into rats resulted produced in Alzheimer-like changes in brain of the rats^[4]

humans are colonized, inside & out, by microorganisms
>1.4 kilograms of microorganisms in our gut
- intestinal microbes produce molecules that travel through the enterohepatic circulation or breach damaged mucosal barriers
many organisms on our skin
humans harbor ~10 microbial cells for every 1 of their own cells
persons with higher levels of the bacteriophage Caudovirales performed better on various tests of executive function & memory^[3]

↑ Human Microbiome Jumpstart Reference Strains Consortium. A catalog of reference genomes from the human microbiome. Science 2010 May 21; 328:994 PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20489017
Zhao L Genomics: The tale of our other genome. Nature 2010 Jun 17; 465:879. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/465879a PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20559375
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Poore GD, Kopylova E, Zhu Q et al. Microbiome analyses of blood and tissues suggest cancer diagnostic approach. Nature 2020 Mar; 579:567. PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32214244 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2095-1
Ajami NJ, Wargo JA. AI finds microbial signatures in tumours and blood across cancer types. Nature 2020 Mar; 579:502 PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32161344 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00637-w
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Mayneris-Perxachs J, Castells-Nobau A, Arnoriaga-Rodriguez M et al. Caudovirales bacteriophages are associated with improved executive function and memory in flies, mice, and humans. Cell Host Microbe 2022 Feb 11:S1931-3128(22)00049-X PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35176247 Free article https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S193131282200049X
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Grabrucker S et al. Microbiota from Alzheimer's patients induce deficits in cognition and hippocampal neurogenesis. Brain 2023 Oct 18; [e-pub]. PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37849234 https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awad303/7308687