In a recent study published in The Lancet Microbe , researchers investigated the association between gut microbiota composition and risk of infection-related hospitalization. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, they characterized the diversity and abundance of gut bacteria in two large, independent, European population-based cohorts. Study findings revealed that gut microbiota compositions, specifically the abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria, may protect against severe hospitalization-requiring infections.
Study: Association between butyrate-producing gut bacteria and the risk of infectious disease hospitalisation: results from two observational, population-based microbiome studies . Image Credit: Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock.com Despite substantial advances in modern medicine, infectious disease significantly burdens human healthcare.
The Global Burden of Disease study (2019) estimated that almost 25% of all annual mortality could be attributable to severe infections. These findings imply that current prevention and treatment modalities are insufficient in curtailing the impacts of infectious diseases and necessitate the discovery of novel strategies to prevent infections severe enough to merit hospitalization and/or death. Recent research by the current authors and others has suggested that human gut microbial composition may be intrinsically linked to infection immunity.
A growing body of research reports that most patients with severe infections depict gut microbial perturbatio.
