30 Oct 2022

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Human Microbiomes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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Academic level: University

Paper type: Research Paper

Words: 1425

Pages: 5

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Human Microbiomes and Their Immunological Significance 

The microbiome is a combination of genomes of the microbes. The microbes which are composed of viruses, protozoa, fungi, bacteriophage and bacteria that live on and inside the human body. The majority are found in the human gut, especially in the large intestine. Microbes contribute to the full makeup of humans, with roughly 100 trillions of microbes. People have approximately 10 times as many microbial cells as the total of human cells. The number of genes in the entire microbes in a single individual`s microbiome is 200 times the population of genes in the person genome. In general, the microbiome weighs as much as five pounds ( Sela & Mills, 2014). 

The accumulation of microbiome in the body performs significant duties which are important to humans’ health and well-being as well as the entire survival. , According to Sela & Mills (2014) microbiome helps the immune system to identify foreign parameters in which human bodies treat as either friendly or foe. It restores balance, harmony, and order within its own communities, thus confirming that opportunistic pathogens are stored to the minimum, and at the same time protecting the host system from harming itself. 

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Microbiome also helps to protect the skin, the mucus membrane and the gut respectively, offering a living protection that is dynamic to be transformed and modified to satisfy a person’s wants and unique environment. The microbiome is also instrumental in the absorption and breakdown of nutrients. Meaning without it, most of the food intake would become indigestible making it difficult to extract the vital nutritional compounds it required to operate. It also secretes important chemicals as a natural part of their metabolic cycle. Furthermore, it produces vitamins such as vitamin B12, B, riboflavin, and thiamine, and vitamin k that are required for blood coagulation. 

Threats Caused By Microbiomes 

With the continuous expanding knowledge regarding how the communities of microbes function in the human body. ( Albertsen, Hugenholtz, & Skarshewski etal, 2013) noted that everything that affects human beings affects their bacteria as well and that the extent to which microbiomes are threats to human health. When people are exposed to toxins in the environment via food, the bacteria are the first to sense the foreign materials and respond accordingly. 

Toxic environmental chemicals like medications, phalates, and glyphosates including other toxicants affect human organs system and cells. In addition, they also interfere with the colonies of microbes which the body host. Glyphosate threat may manifest when people consume meals that have been treated with glyphosate. The chemical is an antibiotic, herbicide, and pesticide which is endemic in the current food supply since they ingest a strong chemical that destroys gut bacteria. This results in chronic inflammation. ( Albertsen, Hugenholtz, & Skarshewski etal, 2013) argued that the modern generation is an epidemic of chronic inflammation that is the originator of multiple diseases. Inflammation is an immune system which contributes to about 80% of the immune system living in the gut. 

Microbiomes also puts the body at the risk of getting infectious diseases such as Clostridium difficile, Helicobacter pylori, Bacterial vaginosis, liver diseases, HIV, Gastric cancer, and Colorectal cancer. Although these diseases are manifested with different fungal, bacterial, or viruses, one thing they share in common is that they are infectious diseases ignited by dysbiosis of the microbiota. Their treatments have a fundamental effect on the human microbiota that helps in determining the result of the infectious disease in the host body. Provoking pathogens dominating the intestinal mucosa leading to the elimination of powerful inflammatory response, accompanied by the translocation of the intestinal bacteria. 

Diagnostic and Treatment Microbiomes Implications 

Immediate medication should be offered to the individuals who have been exposed to the toxic environmental chemicals. Medication should be administered to examine every person`s microbiome to determine if it fit for him/her or not. For instance, Metformin is the commonly used drug in a situation of Glyphosate toxic which has the potential to interfere with the gut ecology both negatively and positively manner. 

The treatment for Glyphosate toxic depends on several factors, however, the immediate solution is to consume organic foods. Taking approved organic diet coupled with only filtered charcoal water could potentially detox glyphosate from the human body. For glyphosate positive patients, a gastric lavage may be conducted in the patient is taken to the hospital few minutes after ingestion had happened. But for individuals who have intentionally ingested the glyphosate may be referred for psychiatric examination to block this from happening again the future (Credible, 2015). 

Diagnosis and Treatment of HIV 

In the case of HIV, a health-care expert can diagnose HIV professionally examining the blood for the existence of antibodies (disease competing proteins) to HIV. The HIV antibodies may take over six months after infection to be delivered in huge amount to show up in the ordinary blood test. For treatment purposes, ( Ong, Dan, Liu & Tang etal 2018) and other medics have invented drugs to battle both HIV infection plus its related infections as well as cancer. Antiretroviral (ART) therapy are also used to control the virus. Every class of drug fights the virus in various ways. In fact, ART is often recommended for everyone despite the nature of CD4 T cell counts. Therefore, it is important to combine three drugs Protease inhibitors (PIs), nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), and Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) to hinder nurturing drug-resistant strains of the virus. 

How Flora Changes In Microbiomes 

Many healthy development factors such as pregnancy, fetal development, and infant growth plus the multitude of physiological shifts such as metabolic changes, hormonal, immune changes, as well as weight gain. Pregnancy is a fundamental biological stage involving concurrent advancement in my physiological systems to help the growth of healthy progeny. While pregnancy related to metabolic and hormonal changes have been in existence for decades. The immediate shift in microbiome makeup that occurs during gestation has been appreciated in many instances. 

Infants receive their first dose of microbes from their mothers. Infants delivered vaginally are secured in a community of microbes as the go via the birth canal. The mix also contains bacteria which assist the newborn digest their first meal. Infants given birth by cesarean section are filmed mostly by skin microbes which his very different design of species. Therefore, apart from their mothers, the newborns receive their microbes from everything or person they touch. 

By the age of three years, a babies microbiome appear slightly the same as those of adults as it graduates to a more stable condition. However, it still continues to change to cope up with changes in diet, injury, stress, fever, antibiotic treatment, disease, and illness. Serious life events such as menopause, pregnancy, and puberty can trigger dramatic changes. For instance, adolescence interferes with the skin microbes by making shifts in skin oils. And pregnancy encourages changes in the vaginal microbiome as a result species to begin to develop that will occupy and benefit the infant as it`s born. 

The foods that people consume also feeds their microbes supporting various microbes to develop comfortably on many kinds of food. For instance, babies who depend on breast milk obviously have totally different gut microbes compared to babies fed on formula. Start solid meals further ignite the population to changes and that’s why microbiome flora changes with age ( Sela & Mills, 2014). 

The future of microbiomes in relation to human infectious diseases 

Medics have long observed microbes as things to be eliminated with immediate effect. Viruses often risk human lives to the flu and measles. Bacteria cause food poisoning and strep throat. Although most microbes do not cause illness somehow, they are important to human health. Little imbalances of microbial populations can easily cause disease especially the infectious diseases in the human body. But correcting the balance may result in good health. (Credible, 2015) as opposed to the current antibiotics which fight both good and bad microbes, future drugs may murder only dangerous bacterial, fungal, or viruses while not tempering with good ones. Other may accommodate friendly fungal or bacteria, supporting them outsmart the dangerous ones. 

My take is that we should minimize our interaction with antibiotics to the periods when they are entirely compulsory. In other words, they should be the last resort. The difficult connection of the microbial areas to the host may also influence the technique clinicians to observe pathogens. As a result, the approach doctors use to treat infectious diseases may change totally. 

The Significance of the Research to the Student in Medical Microbiology 

The high quality of medical care we enjoy in our daily lives is as a result of intensive research my physician-scientists, physicians including competent medical experts. It helps us to understand the causes of and potential cure or treatments for infectious diseases. Medical research has resulted in more fundamental inventions, intensive development in public health and healthcare, and advancements in latest therapies ( Albertsen, Hugenholtz, & Skarshewski etal, 2013) . It is important for medical students to understand that medical research can have the abundant boost on human longevity and health. And with good health comes booming productivity of the citizens and in returns catalyzed the country`s economy. The adoption of the modern technologies in handling health research have greatly transformed the sector. The new transformation emerging in the sector has also made it easier for medical students and health experts to facilitate studies that in the past were viewed as not feasible. 

References 

Albertsen, M., Hugenholtz, P., Skarshewski, A., Nielsen, K. L., Tyson, G. W., & Nielsen, P. H. (2013). Genome sequences of rare, uncultured bacteria obtained by differential coverage binning of multiple metagenomes.  Nature biotechnology 31 (6), 533. 

Credible Hulk. (2015). Glyphosate toxicity: Looking past the hyperbole, and sorting through the facts. By Credible Hulk. Retrieved from The Credible Hulk: < http://www.crediblehulk.org/index.php/2015/06/02/glyphosate-toxicity-looking-past-the-hyperbole-and-sorting-through-the-facts-by-credible-hulk/

Ong, J. J., Li, H., Dan, W., Fu, H., Liu, E., Ma, W., ... & Tang, W. (2018). Coercion and HIV self-testing in men who have sex with men: implementation data from a cross-sectional survey in China.  JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 77 (2), e22-e25. 

Sela, D. A., & Mills, D. A. (2014). The marriage of nutrigenomics with the microbiome: the case of infant-associated bifidobacteria and milk–.  The American journal of clinical nutrition 99 (3), 697S-703S. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 17). Human Microbiomes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
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