{"id":86397,"date":"2025-10-20T10:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T10:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/86397\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T10:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T10:11:11","slug":"discovery-of-new-gut-viruses-opens-doors-to-therapeutics-targeting-the-microbiome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/86397\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery of new gut viruses opens doors to therapeutics targeting the microbiome"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study has discovered hundreds of new viruses living inside bacteria in the human gut, which could potentially influence health and disease outcomes. <\/p>\n

The publication in Nature used a large-scale, culture-based approach and isolated bacteriophages in the human gut, which could be used to reshape the microbiome. The researchers found that the human gut environment directly shaped the viral landscape of the gut, which has the potential to shape future therapeutic strategies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a foundational study that changes how we think about and study the viruses within the human gut,\u201d says senior author professor Jeremy Barr from Monash University\u2019s School of Biological Sciences, Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that compounds produced in human gut cells can wake up dormant viruses inside gut bacteria. This could have major implications for gut diseases like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), where inflammation and cell death are common.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human biology activates viruses<\/p>\n

The study, touted as the \u201cfirst of its kind,\u201d examined 252 bacterial isolates sourced from the Australian Microbiome Culture Collection.<\/p>\n

It found that most gut bacteriophages are dormant, and only a small percentage can be activated under the tested conditions. When they were exposed to human cells, the virus\u2019 activation rate spiked significantly. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"arrow\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From these results, the researchers infer that human biology plays an important role in activating viruses that shape the viral-gut landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TwoThe study, touted as the \u201cfirst of its kind,\u201d examined 252 bacterial isolates sourced from the Australian Microbiome Culture Collection.\u201cWe\u2019ve known that the gut is full of viruses, but until now, we didn\u2019t have the tools and experimental approaches to study them in the lab,\u201d comments first author Dr. Sofia Dahlman, research fellow at the School of Biological Sciences, at Monash University.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings suggest that the human host isn\u2019t just a passive environment. It\u2019s actively influencing viral behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years of research to potential therapeutics<\/p>\n

Monash University and Hudson Institute of Medical Research, collaborating over eight years with other international experts, have also discovered mutations in gut viruses that prevent activation, using CRISPR-based genetic engineering. This revealed how some gut viruses become permanently dormant.<\/p>\n

The team believes its findings hold potential for therapeutics that target the gut microbiome for health benefits. \u201cThis work lays the groundwork for future applications in synthetic biology, biotechnology, and microbiome therapeutics; it\u2019s a major step forward in decoding the viral dark matter of the human gut,\u201d says Barr.<\/p>\n

Associate professor Sam Forster at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research comments: \u201cBeing able to grow these viruses allows us to understand their function and provides the opportunity to develop microbiome therapeutics for diseases from IBD to cancers. This technology also provides a capacity to engineer probiotic strains with tailored viral functions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study has discovered hundreds of new viruses living inside bacteria in the human gut, which could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[22553,59378,163,85,46,59379],"class_list":{"0":"post-86397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gut-microbiome","9":"tag-gut-virus","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-microbiome-therapeutics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}