A large Chinese cohort study found that gastrointestinal disease and heart disease each predict the other's onset years later, with depression explaining part of the link in both directions.
A compound made by common gut bacteria, indole, appears to prime the immune system for more severe brain damage after a stroke, a new study in mice and stroke patients finds. Blocking the pathway protected mice from injury, pointing to gut bacteria as a stroke-severity factor worth further research.
A mouse study found that a probiotic fermented milk reduced amyloid plaque and improved spatial memory in an Alzheimer's model, alongside calmer brain inflammation and shifts in gut bacteria. The effect was strongest in the brain's cortex, not the memory-critical hippocampus, and the findings are preclinical, not yet tested in people.
A new modeling study links two gut bacteria species, Bacteroides uniformis and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, to blood chemistry changes already tied to Alzheimer's disease, with the effect shaped by a person's APOE gene. The predictions did not fully match real blood test results, so the authors call it a hypothesis to test further, not a diagnosis or treatment.
A new Lancet Oncology analysis estimates 2.3 million cancer cases a year, 1 in 8 worldwide, trace back to just five infections, led by the stomach bacterium H. pylori.
A new mouse study identifies a gut enzyme, neutral ceramidase, that reshapes gut bacteria and a bacterial byproduct to weaken the intestinal barrier and worsen liver scarring in MASH. Deleting the enzyme reversed much of the damage without changing liver fat, pointing to a targeted pathway - though so far only in mice.
The most widely used herbicide in history is showing up inside most Americans, including children. New CDC data suggests glyphosate exposure is far more widespread than previously measured.
A new study links lower levels of the gut bacterium Faecalibacterium prausnitzii to psychological stress and body fat in adolescents, and shows in mice how its metabolite, butyrate, blunts stress-driven weight gain. It is a single, not-yet-replicated study, and the human findings are correlational only.
A major new analysis in The Lancet Oncology puts a precise number on something doctors have long suspected: roughly one in eight cancers worldwide traces back to a preventable infection. The pathogens involved are familiar, but the scale is striking.
A review of clinical trial evidence finds that the makeup of a cancer patient's gut microbiome is linked to how well immune checkpoint inhibitors work, and to their risk of serious side effects. Fecal transplants, fiber intake and new scoring tools are being tested to turn that link into something doctors can act on.
