Microbe against stress
Grown bacteria will protect a person from the most serious diseases
Olga Strauss, Rossiyskaya Gazeta
Stress, man, genetics… This was discussed at the XXVI International Conference on Neuroscience and Biological Psychiatry "Stress and Behavior". How to correct the effects of stress? How to cope with the examination and pre-start fever, so familiar to applicants and athletes? And how can the "right" microbes help here? The correspondent of "RG" talks with the director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Dmitriev and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology of this Institute Alexander Suvorov.
– They say that a person carries from one and a half to three kilograms of microbes. Is that right?
Alexander Dmitriev: That's right. We don't have these microbes at birth. And when a person dies, the cells of microorganisms make up up to 90 percent of the cells of his body. The interaction of the human macroorganism with tens of thousands of species of microorganisms is a very complex system. Viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa.... This whole set is called the microbiota.
As soon as a stressful situation occurs, an imbalance of the microbiota immediately occurs. Probably, many people can name signs of stress: something itched, redness somewhere, stomach ached, excessive appetite played out... This is largely due to the imbalance of our macroorganism and the microorganisms that exist in it.
Alexander Suvorov: The microbiota is now considered as an extracorporeal organ of the human body, insanely important, the meaning of which was not understood before.
Humanity came to its senses, realizing that the previous concepts of medicine had lost their significance. If in the second half of the XX century the medical community believed that it was possible to control issues related to human health with the help of drugs, now it has become clear: conceptually incorrect understanding of ourselves has led to the fact that we have grown micro-monsters that modern medicine cannot cope with. There are superbugs that have nothing left to treat. The level and speed of the creation of new antibiotics does not correspond in any way to the speed at which new pathogens appear.
Moreover, many bacteria that were previously regarded as quite harmless parts of the microbial community suddenly became deadly. It turned out that the changes that occur in the structure of the disease have a microbial basis. I'll give you an example. At the beginning of the XX century, myocardial infarction was considered as a casuistry, a rare disease. There were a minimum of oncological diseases. And what do we have now?
– According to statistics, cardiovascular diseases and cancer hold the first places in the mortality of the population.
Alexander Suvorov: Yes, they are being treated. But what is being treated? Symptoms. A person has high blood pressure – let's reduce it. A tumor? Let's delete it.
– Can your words be interpreted in such a way that heart attacks and cancer are just a symptom of a certain shift in the balance in the system of the human body?
Alexander Suvorov: I don't want to say that EVERYTHING in our life is connected with the microbiota, but it is a very important player whose importance is underestimated. For example, changes in the microbiota are the cause of atherosclerosis of blood vessels, including the brain, a number of oncological diseases, including in the stomach, intestines and liver. The development of diabetes, obesity or neurodegenerative diseases is also associated with the microbiota.
And stress is most importantly tied to the microbiota! It turned out that people under stress produce in their bodies a large number of various neurohormones, various modulators of the relationship between our own tissues and bacteria.
– Everyone knows the expression "bear disease". Is this also a stress response?
Alexander Suvorov: Yes, this is a situation when a living organism under stress is trying to reset the microbiota as much as possible. He anticipates losses and wants to reduce the possibility of unwanted microorganisms penetrating through intestinal barriers. And reacts with such a physiological reaction – an emergency diarrheal syndrome. Together with the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, which studies the human body in space, we conducted joint research here.
– And it is generally believed that dysbiosis, or, as they used to say, dysbiosis, is a consequence of frequent and thoughtless use of antibiotics…
Alexander Suvorov: What is the problem of incorrect use of antibiotics? Taking antibiotics together with pathogens, we sweep out our own beneficial bacteria, leaving the "bad guys" in the intestines. Feeling free, this "family of hooligans" begins to behave like residents of a communal apartment, from where decent neighbors have moved out.
This is observed, for example, against the background of very successful surgical operations. The surgeons performed a brilliant operation, it would seem that everything is fine. But... Two days later, the so-called pseudomembranous colitis develops, and the person dies. And this disease is connected with the fact that bacteria develop in the patient's body, which lived there, but were suppressed by other, "decent tenants". That is, they were in a safe amount.
– But the symptoms of diarrhea often come simply from excitement, anxiety?
Alexander Suvorov: Recent studies have shown that a number of intestinal cells are directly connected to the central nervous system through the vagus nerve. This is a new discovery: it turns out that there are cells that, through the corresponding glutamate receptors, tell the brain in milliseconds that some changes have occurred in our intestines that need to be responded to. And the body reacts. The same bear disease with severe stress, and more often dysbiosis, leading to most ailments: from intestinal diseases to atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, diabetes and cancer. Against the background of a disturbed balance, the barrier function of the intestine also changes, which also contributes to the occurrence of chronic diseases.
Unwanted bacteria begin to enter the body in large quantities. There was even the term "gut-brain axis", that is, "the gut – brain axis". A huge number of studies prove that the intestines and the head are closely connected. Both hormonal and neuronal connections.
– So bacteria control our behavior?
Alexander Suvorov: You could say that. For example, if we lack some substances, signals are sent from bacteria indicating that we need to eat this and that. And it is necessary to listen to these signals of the body. And not just follow the advice of nutritionists. Unfortunately, most people do not realize that with age, a person forms his own microbiota, individualized.
– When an imbalance occurs in the human body, in its microbiota, what to do?
Alexander Dmitriev: You can wait for recovery, but in most cases the microbiota does not recover on its own and it needs help in the form of separately grown bacteria. For example, you can take foreign bacteria from various lactic acid products (these are probiotics that are sold for everyone). Or you can take substances that help your bacteria quickly restore balance – prebiotics or metabiotics.
They are also very important. But most probiotics are strangers to the individual immune system, which means that their effect cannot be predicted. Another thing is when we take our own bacteria, to which the individual immune system is adapted.
Alexander Suvorov: Knowing that our bacteria are very individual, we can take a person's own bacteria, check that they are good options, and not those "bad guys", "evil neighbors" who are outraged, and grow microorganisms from them that are able to restore normal life in his "apartment".
After the genetic analysis, unwanted bacteria will be excluded, of which we also have a lot, and then we will grow our own beneficial bacteria for each individual and provide them to him in the form of a microbial preparation. At the household level, it will look like a bottle of delicious fermented baked milk or capsules with live bacteria. These are autoprobiotics.
Alexander Dmitriev: The famous French philosopher-educator Voltaire once said: "Doctors are those who prescribe medicines about which they know little in order to treat diseases about which they know even less, in people about whom they know nothing at all." Of course, this is not the case today. And in recent years, the closest attention has been paid to the development of personalized medicine and an individual approach to each patient. And autoprobiotic support is just a vivid example of such personalized medicine.
– The question: "take from a person" is what?
Alexander Suvorov: Microbiota can be formed from products of the gastrointestinal tract, from the oral cavity, from the urogenital sphere. From any human secretions.
An algorithm has also been developed for how to isolate individual bacteria and grow the right product for a particular person.
– But do you take microbiota from a patient with an already disturbed balance?
Alexander Suvorov: Of course, it is better to collect microbiota from a healthy person. But in the Russian mentality, everyone crosses themselves when the thunder has already struck. However, we have already developed approaches that allow in a high percentage of cases (about 90 percent) to take the necessary bacteria from a person and grow them so that they can help him.
– It turns out that it would be nice if every person, being in a healthy state, passed tests, and his microbiobitic status was recorded in all positions?
Alexander Suvorov: It is more important to create biobanks that would preserve a person's microbiota all his life. Before the problems appear. And as soon as the problem appeared, he turns to us, and a week later we present him a product in the form of a tablet or a bottle of "ryazhenka".
– Is it expensive?
Alexander Dmitriev: At today's prices – several thousand per person.
– So this is no longer a question of the distant future, but a question of practical implementation?
Alexander Suvorov: Large arrays of studies have already been conducted on patients with a number of diseases. For example, an autoprobiotic helps well with irritable bowel syndrome, with neurodegenerative diseases – multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease.
Alexander Dmitriev: This technology can now be used in practice. We have established a medical center at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, which plans to provide such services to the population in the near future. Our work on the study and creation of autoprobiotics is supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The goal we are striving for is the establishment of the production of autoprobiotics, the creation of national cryophages and biobanks in order to quickly grow them for each person using preserved bacteria.
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