Diabetes affects over 38 million people in the United States alone.Type 2 diabetes often involves insulin resistance, when cells in the body don’t respond well to the hormone insulin produced by the beta cells in the pancreas.
A paper published in Cell Host & Microbe reviewed how the gut microbiome affects the development of type 2 diabetes and its management. Paper authors further suggested how this information could be translated into clinical applications.
Bharat Pothuri, MD, a gastroenterologist with Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, TX, who was not involved in the study, said the evolving understanding of the gut microbiome beyond the context of gastrointestinal health could lead to new avenues for type 2 diabetes intervention.Integrating microbiome-targeted therapies with conventional diabetes management could lead to more effective and holistic patient care.
We will need longer, prospective studies to have a better idea of the real efficacy of these proposed treatment options. Nevertheless, this leads to a promising and novel treatment approach to one of the world’s leading health problems.The researchers of the current paper first note that type 2 diabetes is related to the dysfunction of the pancreas’ beta cells.
The gut microbiome is involved in many systemic metabolic processes, and researchers are conducting more studies to understand its involvement in metabolic disease development.
The paper notes that many ancestral bacterial species have been lost over the years, leading to problems like metabolic diseases. There has been a decrease in gut microbiome diversity, likely related to medication use and Western lifestyle.
Previous research has noted the changes to the gut microbiome in people with type 2 diabetes, such as changes in bacteria proportions and declines in species diversity. Body responses, medications, and the Western diet can affect the gut microbiome. The paper even notes that oral antidiabetic medications can affect gut microbiota.
The gut microbiome further creates certain metabolism products that affect other body functions, like the immune system response and the gut barrier. Bile acids that are a metabolism product of the gut microbiome are affected in people with type 2 diabetes.
They then note that changes in the gut microbiome often lead to chronic inflammation, which further decreases gut microbiota.
Next, they note differences that occur in the gut microbiota’s metabolism products in individuals with type 2 diabetes and that these changes can impact the whole body.
They highlight the role of the gut microbiome in the “egregious eleven,” or the pathways that ultimately lead to beta cell dysfunction. They include information from many studies about how the gut microbiome metabolites likely and ultimately affect many organs in the body, like the pancreas, kidneys, and liver.
Finally, researchers note the relationship between oral medications to manage diabetes and the gut microbiome. They note that both affect each other.
