Researchers at the Technion have revealed that drinking sugary drinks causes a genetic change in intestinal bacteria, which negatively affects the functioning of the immune system. The good news: the effect is reversible when you stop consuming sugar.
Consumption of beverages sweetened with white sugar changes the genome of intestinal bacteria, thereby affecting the functioning of the immune system and the tendency to inflammation. The good news: these are reversible effects. This is according to an article published by researchers at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Naama Geva-Zatorsky and doctoral student Noa Gal-Mandelbaum, with their laboratory team, in the journal Nature Communications. Dr. Tamar Ziv and the Smoller Center for Proteomics at the Technion assisted in the study.
The gut bacteria population is an important group in the community of organisms in our bodies – the microbiome. These bacteria have evolved over hundreds of millions of years in co-evolution with humans. They are so essential to human health in general and the development of the immune system in particular, that we cannot function properly without them.
The intestine is an organ that is constantly exposed to environmental changes, and intestinal bacteria are required to cope with this dynamism. One of the characteristics that helps them do this is "functional flexibility," which allows them to respond quickly to environmental changes, including neighboring bacteria, the person's health status, diet, and more.
The study focused on Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron – an essential bacterium that helps prevent intestinal inflammation, maintain the lining of the digestive tract, and protect against pathogens (harmful bacteria). The researchers and their research team examined the relationship between diet and the genetic profile of these bacteria both in the laboratory, in mice and in humans, and discovered that consuming white sugar led to a genetic change in the bacterium and subsequent changes in the immune system – a change in the T-cell population and cytokine secretion – as well as changes in intestinal permeability in mice.
The genetic change in question is a DNA inversion – a rapid genomic change that protects the bacterium. This is a change that Prof. Geva-Zatorsky's research group discovered in a previous study. Now, therefore, it has been discovered that Drinking white sugar Causes DNA inversion in bacteria and its consequences Impairs the functioning of the immune system – even in humans.
The good news, as mentioned, is that these are reversible effects; when the mouse stopped consuming sugar, the bacteria's DNA reversed itself and, as a result, the mouse's normal immune status returned to normal.
This study emphasizes the importance of studying the complex effects of nutrition on health and disease, and the researchers estimate that based on the findings, it will be possible to derive personalized nutritional recommendations with the aim of improving the immune system and overall human health.
The research was supported by the Technion President's Fund, RTICC - the Rappaport Integrated Cancer Research Center at the Technion, the Alon Scholarship for the Absorption of Outstanding Faculty, the Seerave Foundation, CIFAR, and the European Research Council (ERC).
for the article in the journal Nature Communications. click here
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