Measuring Microbiome Effectiveness: A Role for Ingestible Sensors

Smith, David Glenn; Jheeta, Sohan

doi:10.3390/gidisord2010002

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…In principle, an ingestible sensor, a pill-like device bearing a detector and a transmitter, could be developed so as to measure the levels of such species upon exposure to foodstuffs containing substances such as dietary fibre and polyphenols, for example. The resultant response may indicate the degree of dysbiosis and, with help of "omic" approaches [71,72], generate personalised, accurate, and potentially massively applied treatments to assist in finding a method of amelioration, if not an actual cure [73].…”

Section: Semiochemicals: From Single Cells To Multicellular Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Enclosed Intestinal Microbiome: Semiochemical Signals from the Precambrian and Their Disruption by Heavy Metal Pollution

Smith¹,

Palacios-Pérez

Jheeta³

2022

Life

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It is increasingly likely that many non-communicable diseases of humans and associated animals are due to the degradation of their intestinal microbiomes, a situation often referred to as dysbiosis. An analysis of the resultant diseases offers an opportunity to probe the function of these microbial partners of multicellular animals. In our view, it now seems likely that vertebrate animals and their microbiomes have coevolved throughout the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition and beyond, operating by semiochemical messaging between the multicellular host and its microbial community guest. A consideration of the overall role of the mutualistic intestinal microbiome as an enclosed bioreactor throws up a variety of challenging concepts. In particular: the significance of the microbiome with respect to the immune system suggests that microeukaryotes could act as microbial sentinel cells; the ubiquity of bacteriophage viruses implies the rapid turnover of microbial composition by a viral-shunt mechanism; and high microbial diversity is needed to ensure that horizontal gene transfer allows valuable genetic functions to be expressed. We have previously postulated that microbes of sufficient diversity must be transferred from mother to infant by seemingly accidental contamination during the process of natural birth. We termed this maternal microbial inheritance and suggested that it operates alongside parental genetic inheritance to modify gene expression. In this way, the adjustment of the neonate immune system by the microbiome may represent one of the ways in which the genome of a vertebrate animal interacts with its microbial environment. The absence of such critical functions in the neonate may help to explain the observation of persistent immune-system problems in affected adults. Equally, granted that the survival of the guest microbiome depends on the viability of its host, one function of microbiome-generated semiochemicals could be to facilitate the movement of food through the digestive tract, effectively partitioning nutrition between host and guest. In the event of famine, downregulation of microbial growth and therefore of semiochemical production would allow all available food to be consumed by the host. Although it is often thought that non-communicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, are caused by consumption of food containing insufficient dietary fibre, our hypothesis suggests that poor-quality food is not the prime cause but that the tendency for disease follows the degradation of the intestinal microbiome, when fat build-up occurs because the relevant semiochemicals can no longer be produced. It is the purpose of this paper to highlight the possibility that the origins of the microbiome lie in the Precambrian and that the disconnection of body and microbiome gives rise to non-communicable disease through the loss of semiochemical signalling. We further surmise that this disconnect has been largely brought about by heavy metal poisoning, potentially illuminating a facet of the exposome, the sum total of environmental insults that influence the expression of the genetic inheritance of an animal.

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Section: Semiochemicals: From Single Cells To Multicellular Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Enclosed Intestinal Microbiome: Semiochemical Signals from the Precambrian and Their Disruption by Heavy Metal Pollution

Smith¹,

Palacios-Pérez

Jheeta³

2022

Life

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“…Although considered in more detail later, the use of an ingestible sensor designed to respond to the presence of semiochemicals [24] would help to connect microbial composition with microbiome function [62]. In principle it should prove possible to track several different semiochemicals in parallel.…”

Section: Microbiome Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have suggested that such chemicals act alongside hormones to facilitate gut movement thus ensuring that the microbiome receives adequate nutrition, allowing for events such as pregnancy or famine. In principle these allomones may be monitored by means of ingestible sensors and thereby provide information about the state of microbiome effectiveness [62].…”

Section: The Microbiome As a Mutualistic Entity: Allomones And Kairomonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By contrast, modern miniaturisation technology has given us the opportunity to transmit real-time information from the gut lumen by means of an ingestible sensor, effectively an electronic device containing a sensor attuned to a specific allomone and attached to a radio transmitter, as we have reported earlier [62]. Although such a device is not yet available, in principle it would allow a researcher to monitor the time-dependent presence of a target compound when swallowed alongside test substances.…”

Section: Studying the Microbiome-gut-brain Axis: A Role For Ingestible Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microbiome–Gut Dissociation: Investigating the Origins of Obesity

Smith¹,

Jheeta²

2021

Gastrointestinal Disorders

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The reduction of excessive weight remains a major public health challenge, with control currently limited to a calorie reduction strategy. Currently, attempts are being made at revisiting the fibre hypothesis based on the African studies of Denis Burkitt, that the lack of dietary fibre in the modern diet was responsible for the occurrence of obesity and many of the other non-communicable diseases of what he called “Western civilization”. However, the dilemma is that Burkitt himself stressed that other peoples of his day, such as the Maasai, remained healthy without consuming such high fibre diets. Equally, the present obesity epidemic is accompanied by diseases of a malfunctioning immune system and of poor mental health that do not seem to be adequately explained simply by a deficiency of dietary fibre. Though unknown in Burkitt’s day, an increasing degradation of a mutualistic intestinal microbiome would offer a better fit to the observed epidemiology, especially if the microbiome is not effectively passed on from mother to child at birth. Taking the broader view, in this article we posit a view of the microbiome as a cofactor of mammalian evolution, in which a maternal microbial inheritance complements the parental genetic inheritance of the animal, both engaging epigenetic processes. As this would require the microbiome to be fully integrated with the animal as it develops into an adult, so we have a meaningful evolutionary role for the microbiome–gut–brain axis. By a failure to correctly establish a microbiome–gut interface, the inhibition of maternal microbial inheritance sets the scene for the future development of non-communicable disease: compromised immune system function on the one hand and dysfunctional gut–brain communication on the other. The basic principle is that the fully functioning, diverse, microbiome achieves interkingdom communication by the generation of messenger chemicals, semiochemicals. It is envisaged that the in situ detection of these as yet ill-defined chemical entities by means of an ingestible sensor would indicate the severity of disease and provide a guide as to its amelioration.

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“…The interaction of the microbiome with different nutrients can be real‐time quantitatively measured. [ 118 ]…”

Section: Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Edible and Nutritive Electronics: Materials, Fabrications, Components, and Applications

Shan

et al. 2020

Adv Materials Technologies

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In comparison with the implantable electronics, ingestible electronics are less invasive but can travel close to major organs through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, monitor a wide range of biomarkers and therapeutic targets, and serve as effective clinical tools for diagnostics and therapy. [4d,5] Today, GI conditions have become one of the most prevalent health concerns in modern society. The market was expected to nearly reach the one-billion-dollar mark. [4e] Through analyzing the conditions of the GI tract [4d] (Figure 1), many diseases can be monitored and diagnosed, e.g., refluxing gastric fluid, cancer, motility disorders, infected and abnormally dilated venous vessels, gastritis, gastric ulcers, coeliac disease, lactose intolerance, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticular disease, constipation, clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, etc. [5,6] Conventional ingestible electronics mostly consist of inorganic materials and encapsulated with rigid nondegradable polymer, such as polydimethylsiloxane, parylene/epoxy, [4a] which will lead longer devices retention in the GI tract. This is one of the most significant risk elements during the application of conventional ingestible electronics. Fully food-based edible and nutritive electronics have emerged to address these potential risks. Edible electronics are new generation ingestible electronics. Recently, there is no accurate and clear definition of edible electronics. [4g,7] The definition of "transient electronics," [3h] which focused on implantable electronics, was similar to the edible electronics concept and defined as: made of biodegradable materials and can completely or partially dissolve, resorb, or physically disappear after functioning in environmental or physiological conditions at controlled rates. By follow this spirit, the definition of edible electronics is provided here: a class of microencapsulated electronic devices that consist of edible and nutritive inorganics and organics materials, meanwhile, that can be mainly dissolved, digested and absorbed after fulfilling the diagnosis or therapy of diseases in the gastrointestinal tract. The edible and nutritive inorganics always include edible inert metals, trace elements [8] and their oxides. Nutritive organics always include biopigments, and polymers. [7,9] A more systemic and expanded materials toolbox will be very helpful to advance The emerging novel edible and nutritive electronics indicate an important advance in ingestible and implantable electronics, covering multiple disciplines such as biomedicine, electronics, and nutriology. This review focuses on the feasibility and critical technical problems of fabricating fully edible and nutritive electronics. Recently, a limited number of fully edible and nutritive electronics, operating single functions, have been applied to monitor the condition of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and diagnose its disorders. However, fully edible, nutritive, miniaturized, and well-functioning electronics with mu...

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Measuring Microbiome Effectiveness: A Role for Ingestible Sensors

Cited by 11 publications

References 60 publications

The Enclosed Intestinal Microbiome: Semiochemical Signals from the Precambrian and Their Disruption by Heavy Metal Pollution

The Enclosed Intestinal Microbiome: Semiochemical Signals from the Precambrian and Their Disruption by Heavy Metal Pollution

Microbiome–Gut Dissociation: Investigating the Origins of Obesity

Edible and Nutritive Electronics: Materials, Fabrications, Components, and Applications

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