{"id":653,"date":"2019-08-12T13:24:48","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T13:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/?p=653"},"modified":"2019-08-12T13:24:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T13:24:48","slug":"a-gut-feeling-about-type-1-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/a-gut-feeling-about-type-1-diabetes\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gut Feeling about Type 1 Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The result of the pairing, along with chemistry graduate student Anthony Santilli and undergraduate genetics major and student-athlete Elizabeth Dawson, is a\u00a0recent study<\/a> in the journal ACS Chemical Biology<\/em>, which details the use of a small molecule to slow the growth of a specific genus of bacteria, called\u00a0Bacteroides<\/em>, in the gut microbiome. The technique is a novel diversion from existing treatment strategies that target the gut microbiome, in that it holds the potential to edit specific types of bacteria in the gut without harming other microbes that are present.<\/p>\n

The connection between the microbiome \u2013 our own personal collection of bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses \u2013 and human health is one that has been gaining steam over the last few decades. Supported by numerous studies that implicate the microbiome in chronic diseases, immunity, digestion and even feelings of depression and anxiety, it appears that our bodies\u2019 microbes serve a variety of important functions that are only just being realized.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Bacteroides\u00a0<\/em>genus is no exception. The researchers\u2019 interest in this specific strain of bacteria developed for two reasons, marked first by\u00a0Bacteroides\u2019\u00a0<\/em>well-defined job in the gut microbiome. The bacteria have an intricate collection of enzymes that are responsible for the breakdown of complex carbohydrates, specifically that of starches. Knowing precisely how the bacteria function made it easier for the researchers to develop hypotheses on how to manipulate the\u00a0Bacteroides\u00a0<\/em>system.<\/p>\n

But the second reason considers a\u00a0peculiar link<\/a>\u00a0between\u00a0Bacteroides\u00a0<\/em>and Type 1 diabetes, a chronic disorder in which the pancreas produces little to no insulin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there are certain genetic risk factors associated with Type 1, but not everybody with those risk factors develops the disease and not everybody with Type 1 has those risk factors,\u201d Kristi said. \u201cWhen you combine that with the significant increase in the diagnosis of Type 1 over the past two decades, researchers are starting to look at environmental factors \u2013 something in our diet or maybe something like C-sections versus vaginal births or antibiotic use in infants. What has changed to cause an increase in the rate of Type 1?\u201d<\/p>\n

One study in particular \u2013 the\u00a0TEDDY study<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 is tracking babies from birth to age 15 to determine which environmental triggers cause children to develop Type 1 diabetes. Most notably to the researchers, the TEDDY study has shown a marked increase<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0recent study details the use of a small molecule to slow the growth of a specific genus of bacteria in the gut microbiome. There may be implications for treatment of Type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[153],"tags":[116,187],"coauthors":[136],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-researchupdates","tag-2019-research-updates","tag-diabetes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/Gut-microbe-Anthony-Santilli-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9IEky-ax","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}