Could Viruses Attacking The Microbiome Be Responsible For Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

Research in mice suggests that viruses attacking the microbiome may be involved in inflammatory… [+] bowel disease. Picture credit: Shutterstock

New research done in a mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has suggested that viruses called phages, which have the ability to infect and kill gut bacteria, may be involved in the disease.

The possible role of the microbiome in inflammatory diseases has been a busy area of research recently, with a study in May showing that gut bacteria may play a role in multiple sclerosis. The relationship between bacteria in the gut microbiome and IBD is an active area of research, but new research published in Nature Microbiology yesterday suggests that viruses called phages, which infect gut bacteria may be important in controlling the disease.

“Phage numbers are elevated at the intestinal mucosal surface and increase in abundance during inflammatory bowel disease, suggesting that phages play an unidentified role in IBD,” said  Breck Duerkop, lead author of the paper from the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Duerkop and colleagues used a mouse model of colitis and then did DNA sequencing to identify phages found in the gut as well as measuring how they changed when inflammation occurred. They then compared this information to that found in publicly available databases showing that the same phages were found in people with IBD.

“What we see in mice is consistent with what we see in humans with IBD. If we can better understand how these viruses shape bacterial communities, we might be able to determine how these contribute to the disease,” said Duerkop.

Duerkop hypothesizes that inflammation might be the result of the phages killing beneficial bacteria in the intestine, allowing it to be colonized with harmful bacteria.

“This work demonstrates changes in the phage population correlated with inflammation and provides insight into how the microbiome might be involved in IBD. It is an important next step in understanding the very complex ecosystem that exists in our bodies,” said David Rubin, MD the Professor and Chief of the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Chicago Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

IBD is a collective term for an estimated fifty diseases affecting as many as 1.6 millio