Discovering more than 6,000 new gut germs in Africa

According to RCO News Agency, A study led by the Molecular Biology Institute of Sydney Brenner (SBIMB) at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa examines the people of Africa in the field of microbioma studies.

According to Newsmodic, studies of “microbioma” or coexist microbes study all genes and germs cells, based on their species, based in a special section.

Why is this discovery important?

For many years, the majority of drugs have been made based on experiments in developed countries, but intestinal bacteria (small components living in the digestive system) have been helping them function.

Also, the people of Africa have a completely different intestinal bacteria from the people of Europe or the US. This means that many drugs may not be effective for African patients. Researchers say these findings can help create special drugs for the people of Africa.

“These studies are very good,” says Luicer Ingasia Olubayo, a postgraduate colleague in SBIMB. Doctors may need to prescribe different drugs or add “probiotics” to the treatment of African patients.

Probiotics are a type of food that, in addition to the nutritional role due to its useful microorganisms in themselves, have health properties.

Surprisingly discovery

The Sydney Brenner Institute found more than a thousand new bacteria and more than 6,000 new viruses in the gut microbiomes of the African people.

“We have achieved a lot of new gains,” says Olubaiv. Special bacteria that are rare on other continents are abundant in Africa.

Researchers collected stool samples from Kenya, Ghana, Burkina Faso and South Africa. These samples were investigated using consecutive genetic technology to identify the various germs.

A new hope for the treatment of AIDS

According to the researchers, one of the most exciting discoveries was to find unique patterns of intestinal bacteria in people with AIDS.

“If we didn’t do this study, we would not have been able to discover this unique microbial ID related to AIDS infection,” says Olubaiv.

This discovery can lead to more effective approaches to identify, monitor and treat AIDS in Africa. It was the biggest study ever done. In this study, the microbiomes of women with AIDS were studied. Understanding this disease requires research in a particular area.

Urban life in front of rural life

Researchers found that residents of rural areas are richer and more diverse than residents of towns. They also found that participants from urban areas due to less fiber and more antibiotic use, often lack a bacterium called Treponma.

Charsa Naidoo, a assistant director of the African Microbiom Institute, warned that the useful gut bacteria are disappearing because Africans have adopted urban lifestyle and use more antibiotics.

He added: Immediate action, such as changes in nutrition, is needed to maintain the diversity of intestinal microbiomes during excessive use of antibiotics.

This process can have long consequences. It can also increase allergies, autoimmune disorders and metabolic diseases such as diabetes. However, the story is not simply comparing rural life against urban life. The team found that intestinal bacteria were different even between different cities such as Kenya and South Africa.

“We have used the transformation between these populations, despite the use of other researchers,” said Olubaiv.

As a result, the type of local nutrition, environmental factors and cultural measures all play an important role in forming our intestinal microbiome.

Fill in Africa’s vacancies

The US National Institute of Health in 2008 launched a large global project called the “Human Microbial Project” to better understand the microbiota involved in human health and disease.

However, most of these studies were focused on advanced countries and low and medium -sized countries were less studied.

“If you look at the world map and consider the number of studies in countries, you will eventually see Africa remain empty, so we are happy to add Africa to this map,” Olobeio says.

According to the researchers, they are expanding their work to study the relationship between intestinal bacteria and other health issues such as sleep problems, menopause and brain diseases.

According to Nido of the African Microbium Institute, future research should focus on the disease due to the widespread impact of TB in South Africa and neighboring countries.

“This is its first large -scale study,” says Jerlen Naidoo, a senior researcher at Biological Engineering and Janganology in the Council of Science and Technology. The focus of this study is only on the people of Africa. These findings became a turning point for the human microbiome of the continent by recognizing the scale of new biodiversity in African microbiomes. This variety requires better presentation in global resources and reference databases.

This study is published in the journal Nature.

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