Has there been any research regarding genetic variation of our microbiome longitudinally?
Is there maybe a correlation between these outcomes and regional variation in microbiomes?
Effects of early-life penicillin exposure on the gut microbiome and frontal cortex and amygdala gene expression – God I fucking hate hypothesis based science, can support absolutely any ridiculous argument.
Species-Level Gut Microbiota Analysis after Antibiotic-Induced Dysbiosis in Horses – Fuck me, I never thought of this, but what if our current main-line anti-biotics (e.g. amoxicilin) are too selective? Or less effective against archaea which compete against bacterias?
Impact of antibiotics on the human microbiome and consequences for host health – Was aware of issues with c.diff but wouldn’t have even thought about other issues. Geez.
Changes in intestinal microflora and its metabolites underlie the cognitive impairment in preterm rats – Come on man, this was just a dumb joke. The evidence isn’t overwhelming but it’s definitely past the point of casual dismissal.
The Role of MicroRNA and Microbiota in Depression and Anxiety – Is this just a latest fad or something? How do I attack this?
Okay, now if I’m taking all this at face value, “obesity” may not be a driver of diabetes incidence and prevalence, fucked microbiomes are. “Obesity” is just a behavioral artifact of that underlying etiology.
Gut-kidney axis in IgA nephropathy: Role on mesangial cell metabolism and inflammation
Metabolic and Microbial Changes Associated With Diet and Obesity During Pregnancy: What Can We Learn From Animal Studies? – Christ, so our microbiome might almost entirely dictate our “food” drive across the board. Is the “obesity epidemic” the result of out of control signalling by the microbiome, an example of our biome shaping our behavior. Expanding this to another level, it also controls our social behavior by manipulating the food products available to match up with regional similarities in biomes driving food behavior.
Well, I don’t know what to think about all this. Sorry, thought I was going to get to make fun of a silly idea.
I’ve thought about this in the past in the context of fecal transplant work, but that work has been so all over the place with such sparse effect sizes that I was skeptical of it. I guess I’m still skeptical of it, but that skepticism resulted in me overlooking the underlying conceit more than I should have maybe.
The thing I hate the most about this is how conformable it is to observations. For example, SSRIs don’t have much of an effect on the “brain”. But for some people they clearly do have an effect. What the hell? What if instead of looking at the brain we assumed that SSRIs modulated microbiota signalling in the gut, which in turn modified “mood”? That’s literally where almost all of our serotonin is anyway right?
How gut bacteria are controlling your brain (BBC Article) – Guess this has been floating around more than I thought. Pretty well written piece touching on most of the points I’ve been thinking about.
Wondering what’s up with the push on this, was there a big lab that released results recently?
ApoE isoform– and microbiota-dependent progression of neurodegeneration in a mouse model of tauopathy – Ooof. Don’t see the word “causal” being used without cover very often.
Edit: After thinking about this for a bit, I’m neutral to the top level question – Are microbiome changes driving top level human behavior (including social behavior)? There’s enough evidence to support a strong argument, however a lot of that evidence is really low quality cumulative echo chamber noise.
I find the idea of obesity, being a product of changes in diet, driven by changes in food preferences on a regional level, driven by changes in regional microbiomes, which ultimately shapes the products available on the market.
The issues comes that if this was true, we should be able to blast ourselves with anti-microbials, re-colonize with “better” flora, and bing bang boom prevalence starts dropping. Or even just more actively add these microbes to our food process and cumulatively we should see a difference.
Another interesting viewpoint is what if these conditions are what selective pressure looks like from the species level perspective? It’s a subtle behavioral manipulation that over many generations is going to provide benefits to lineages of humans which have a more “positive” genetic relationship to the local micro-environment?
Humans believe that we have escaped the gravity of natural selection, and individuals like David Sinclair believe this so enthusiastically that it’s clouding our relationship with our environments. In reality, we may have just figured out how to jump over puddles, or at best build a boat which allows us some insulation against the metabolic storm that whirls around us. We are still subject to, and dependent on, that storm.
Antidepressants can induce mutation and enhance persistence toward multiple antibiotics – Lol, I don’t even know what to say to this. So the MOA for anti-depressants might be that they induce transciption changes in our microbiome, rather than having a direct effect on our cells directly. Just.. wow, lol. The idea that most SSRIs might not be “SSRIs” at all, but rather a class of unrealized anti-biotic is just damn mindblowing.