Food Preservatives and the Gut Microbiome

Eureka states: “Lanthipeptides, a class of bacteriocins with especially potent antimicrobial properties, are widely used by the food industry and have become known as “lantibiotics” (a scientific portmanteau of lanthipeptide and antibiotics).”

A February 2024 study by the University of Chicago said,

• “Nisin is, in essence, an antibiotic that has been added to our food for a long time, but how it might impact our gut microbes is not well studied,”

• “Even though it might be very effective in preventing food contamination, it might also have a greater impact on our human gut microbes.”

• “This study is one of the first to show that gut commensals are susceptible to lantibiotics, and are sometimes more sensitive than pathogens,”

• “With the levels of lantibiotics currently present in food, it’s very probable that they might impact our gut health as well.”

• “It seems that lantibiotics and lantibiotic-producing bacteria are not always good for health, so we are looking for ways to counter the potential bad influence while taking advantage of their more beneficial antimicrobial properties,”

Kidney Stones and the Microbiome

A December 2023 report by St. Joseph’s Health Care London (St. Joseph’s).said,

• “Kidney stone disease has been rising in recent years, affecting roughly 10 per cent of people,”

• “While previous research has shown a connection between the gut microbiome and kidney stones in those who have taken antibiotics, we also wanted to explore the connection to other microbiomes in the hopes we can advance understanding and potential treatments.”

• “Our testing – called shotgun metagenomic sequencing – allowed us to discover which bacteria were present in the gut and the genetic capabilities of those bacteria, or how it functions. We also did a simpler sequencing of the oral and urinary samples,”

• “It’s a more complex story. The microbes form a kind of network that’s stable and beneficial in healthy people, but in those with kidney stones, that network is broken down. They’re not producing the same vitamins and useful metabolites, not just in the gut but also in the urinary tract and oral cavity,”

• “We found not only that those who got kidney stones had an unhealthy microbiome, including a gut microbiome that was more likely to excrete toxins to the kidneys, but also that they were antibiotic resistant,”

friendship and the gut microbiome

A November 2022 study of macaques by the Department of Experimental Psychology and the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Oxford, said: 

• “Here we show that more sociable monkeys have a higher abundance of beneficial gut bacteria, and a lower abundance of potentially disease-causing bacteria.”

• “Macaques are highly social animals and grooming is their main way of making and maintaining relationships, so grooming provides a good indicator of social interactions.”

• “Engagement in social interactions was positively related to the abundance of certain gut microbes with beneficial immunological functions, and negatively related to the abundance of potentially pathogenic members of the microbiota,”

• “It is particularly striking that we find a strong positive relationship between the abundance of the gut microbe Faecalibacterium and how sociable the animals are. Faecalibacterium is well known for its potent anti-inflammatory properties and is associated with good health,”

• “The relationship between social behavior and microbial abundances may be the direct result of social transmission of microbes, for example through grooming. It could also be an indirect effect, as monkeys with fewer friends may be more stressed, which then affects the abundance of these microbes. As well as behavior influencing the microbiome, we also know it is a reciprocal relationship, whereby the microbiome can in turn affect the brain and behavior,” 

• “As our society is increasingly substituting online interactions for real-life ones, these important research findings underline the fact that as primates, we evolved not only in a social world but a microbial one as well.”