Your Gut Bacteria May Determine How Well You Respond to Drugs

https://www.technologynetworks.com/drug-discovery/news/your-gut-bacteria-may-determine-how-well-you-respond-to-drugs-320199?utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TN_Breaking%20Science%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=73370578&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-85ubfClewCQCWrq-Nu3CZcxO0EjquJHOCA9cOwRJfK6LeB7EMNiNEhVVFEi6xcju3C2_tQOu-oP-xnKt__sPX3PBPvUw&_hsmi=73370578 Drug metabolism studies typically do not assess the contribution of the microbiome. “However, anecdotal examples of microbiome-metabolized drugs have emerged over past decades,” Goodman said. The Microbiome and Cancer Infographic The Microbiome and Cancer READ MORE To map the connections between gut microbes and medical drugs, the researchers investigated whether and how each of 271 drugs are chemically modified by each of 76 different kinds of bacteria from the human gut. Almost two-thirds of these drugs were metabolized by at least one of the bacterial specimens tested. The researchers then constructed genetic libraries of the selected drug-metabolizing gut bacteria which allowed them to systematically identify many of the genes responsible for the chemical transformation of the drugs. They found that the number of these genes varies widely across the gut microbial communities of healthy human volunteers. In some cases, these differences explain why some individuals’ gut microbiomes metabolize drugs rapidly, while others modify the same drugs slowly or not at all. “We hope this study provides a useful first step in understanding the microbiome contribution to drug metabolism,” said Michael Zimmermann, postdoctoral fellow in the Goodman lab and co-lead author of the study. “We think these approaches could shed light on how the gut microbiome also modulates our response to non-drug compounds, such as dietary nutrients and environmental agents.”