BRUSSELS, April 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Every person's intestinal system
falls into one of three clearly distinguishable types of gut microbiota,
comparable to blood types. These types are not related to race, native
country or diet, according to a new metagenomics study by an international
consortium of scientists including Jeroen Raes, of the VIB and Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, published in Nature. Metagenomics is the study of the
genetic material of complete ecosystems, in this case the human gut.
"The three gut types can explain why the uptake of medicines and nutrients varies from person to person," says bioinformatician Jeroen Raes of the VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, one of the two lead researchers in the study. "This knowledge could form the basis of personalized therapies. Treatments and doses could be determined on the basis of the gut type of the patient."
Improved knowledge of the gut types could also lead to other medical applications, such as the early diagnosis of intestinal cancer, Crohn's disease and the adverse effects of obesity.
Three types of gut microbiota
The types of gut microbiota (called enterotypes) can be classified into three large, clearly distinguishable groups: Bacteroides, Prevotella and Ruminococcus. They are named for the bacteria that dominate the intestines of the respective groups. It is still unclear whether people can change from one group to another during their lives.
Research team
This research was conducted by Jeroen Raes of the VIB Department of Molecular and Cellular Interactions, Vrije Universiteit Brussel VIB and Manimozhiyan Arumugam of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, under the direction of Dusko Ehrlich and Peer Bork of the MetaHIT consortium.
SOURCE VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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"The three gut types can explain why the uptake of medicines and nutrients varies from person to person," says bioinformatician Jeroen Raes of the VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, one of the two lead researchers in the study. "This knowledge could form the basis of personalized therapies. Treatments and doses could be determined on the basis of the gut type of the patient."
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Improved knowledge of the gut types could also lead to other medical applications, such as the early diagnosis of intestinal cancer, Crohn's disease and the adverse effects of obesity.
Three types of gut microbiota
The types of gut microbiota (called enterotypes) can be classified into three large, clearly distinguishable groups: Bacteroides, Prevotella and Ruminococcus. They are named for the bacteria that dominate the intestines of the respective groups. It is still unclear whether people can change from one group to another during their lives.
Research team
This research was conducted by Jeroen Raes of the VIB Department of Molecular and Cellular Interactions, Vrije Universiteit Brussel VIB and Manimozhiyan Arumugam of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, under the direction of Dusko Ehrlich and Peer Bork of the MetaHIT consortium.
Read more on
http://www.vib.be/Jeroen-Raes
Notes to the editor
Source:
VIB is a non-profit research institute in the life sciences in Flanders,
Belgium, with 1200 scientists conducting strategic basic research on the
molecular mechanisms that are responsible for the functioning of the human
body, plants, and micro-organisms. The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is a
university in the heart of Belgium and Europe
http://www.vub.ac.be/SOURCE VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel
