Turns out, there is a key connection between viruses and inflammatory bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
A study led by a researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus focused on viruses inhabiting bacteria in the intestine known as bacteriophages or simply phages.
“Phage numbers are elevated at the intestinal mucosal surface and increase in abundance during inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), suggesting that phages play an unidentified role in IBD,” said Duerkop, lead author of the study published Monday in the journal Nature Microbiology.
IBD poses significant health burdens worldwide and has inspired intense investigation into the environmental factors causing persistent inflammation of the intestine. Microbial communities are critical in maintaining intestinal health but changes in the composition of these organisms may cause an inflammatory response by the body.
According to the researchers, most studies looking at how these microbial communities might spark inflammation have focused chiefly on bacteria rather than the viruses residing inside them.
When inflammation occurs, researchers found that phage communities change randomly leading to a genetic signature indicative of the inflammatory environment.
“We hypothesize that inflammation or other host defenses alter phage abundances during colitis,” the study said.
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