‘Bacteriophage’, a type of virus that lives in the intestine./Newsis
Most viruses are known to have negative health effects, but research has shown that some viruses that live in the gut play a role in regulating stress.
A research team at the APC Microbiome Research Center at University College Cork, Ireland, recently announced that they had confirmed that bacteriophages, a type of virus that lives in the gut, play this role in mouse experiments . This study was published in the latest issue of the academic journal Nature Microbiology.
Recently, several research results have been published in the scientific community in support of the “gut-brain axis theory,” according to which the gut and the brain interact closely. However, although there has already been research showing that gut microorganisms respond to stress, there has been no research focusing on the relationship between bacteriophages, a family of viruses, and stress. Bacteriophage is a type of virus that uses bacteria as a host.
The researchers subjected experimental mice to chronic social stress, for example by exposing them to an overcrowded environment, and observed the effects on intestinal bacteriophages. Next, bacteriophages were collected from the feces of healthy, non-stressed mice and planted in the mice’s intestines. As a result of the experiment, it was found that stress hormone levels were lowered and depressive and anxious behaviors were reduced in mice that were transplanted with bacteriophages from healthy mice.
The research team said that while future analyzes are needed to determine whether bacteriophages play the same role in humans, they opened up the possibility. Dr Nathaniel Ritz, who led the research, said in an interview with the Guardian in the UK: “Considering that the composition of bacteriophages varies greatly between humans, we will be able to develop personalized treatments for stress.”
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