Researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, in collaboration with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, have teamed up with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital to develop a specific species of gut bacteria that consumes bacteria, lowers cholesterol, and reduces the risk of heart disease. Identified.The study was published Tuesday in the journal celljoins the list of diseases affected by the gut microbiome, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

For their discovery, researchers used stool samples from the decades-old Framingham Heart Study, which has explored various risk factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease. Metabolite and microbial genomes were analyzed using data from more than 1,400 participants.As a result, bacteria Oscilibacter People who take in cholesterol from their surroundings and metabolize it, and people who have a lot of these bacteria in their bodies, also had lower cholesterol levels.

“Our research integrates findings from human subjects with experimental validation to ensure we achieve actionable mechanistic insights that can serve as a starting point for improving cardiovascular health.” said Ramnik Xavier, MD, a member of the Institute and director of the Immunology Program. Co-Director of the Broad’s Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program.

In addition to identifying the specific bacteria that lower cholesterol in humans, the research team also identified the mechanisms that the bacteria likely use to break down cholesterol. This finding suggests that in the future, doctors may be able to manipulate the human microbiome to help control cholesterol. Their high cholesterol.

Over the past decade, researchers have gained some knowledge about the association between cardiovascular disease and the effects of the gut microbiome, such as postprandial triglyceride and blood sugar levels. Despite this knowledge, the development of therapeutics has been impossible due to the lack of a more detailed understanding of metabolic pathways within the intestine.

To get a more complete picture of microbial activity in the gut, researchers in the Xavier lab, Broad’s Metabolomics Platform, and collaborators are performing shotgun metagenomic sequencing to map all microbes in patients’ stool samples. We profiled the DNA and combined it with metabolomics to identify it. Both known and unknown metabolites.

This method identified more than 16,000 associations between microorganisms and metabolic traits. They also include one particularly strong signal that people carry some species of bacteria. Oscilibacter Bacterial cholesterol levels were lower than those lacking these bacteria. Researchers were surprised to find out how abundant different substances were. Oscilibacter On average, one bacterial species was present in every 100 bacteria identified.

The second enterobacterial species—Eubacteria CoprostanorigenesIt has also been found to contribute to lowering cholesterol. This bacterium has previously been shown to play a role in cholesterol metabolism. In further research to unravel the bacterial pathway that helps lower cholesterol, the research team found that bacteria convert cholesterol into intermediate products that are then further broken down and excreted by other gut bacteria. . Investigators discovered that eubacteria There may be a synergistic effect with Oscilibacter.

Researchers say that while the majority of the genes in the gut microbiome are still uncharacterized, the study of identifying these cholesterol-metabolizing bacteria could lead to discovering additional metabolic pathways that contribute to human health and disease. It also points out that it provides new targets that could potentially be dealt with. therapeutically.

“Many clinical studies attempt to study fecal microbiome migration without much understanding of how microorganisms interact with each other and in the gut,” said Chenghao Li, a postdoctoral researcher in the Xavier lab. Ta. “We hoped that by first focusing on specific bugs or genes, we could take a step back and systematically understand the biology of the gut and come up with better treatment strategies, such as targeting one or a small number of bugs. I am.”