several plant extracts and phytoconstituents, despite having excellent bioactivity in vitro, demonstrate less or no in vivo actions due to their poor lipid solubility or improper molecular size or destruction in gut. drug delivery system for polyphenolic phytoconstituents (phytosomes) was prepared by complexing polyphenolic phytoconstituents with phospholipid mainly phosphatidylcholine which bi...

The Formosan subterranean termite; Coptotermes formosanus is nutritionally dependent on the complex and diverse community of bacteria and protozoa in their gut. Although, there have been many studies to decipher the taxonomic and functional diversity of bacterial communities in the guts of termites, their bacteriophages remain unstudied. We sequenced the metavirome of the guts of Formosan subte...

The human bowel is host to a diverse group of bacteria with over 500 different bacterial species contributing to this diversity. Until recently these bacteria were regarded as residents without any specific functions. The last two decades have seen a radical change in our understanding of the interactions between the gut flora and their eukaryotic hosts and there is a growing appreciation of th...

Earthworms are eco-friendly and play a variety of roles in agro ecosystem. The gut of earthworm is the factory to manufacture the beneficial microbial densities and their products. The excreted nutrients enrich thousand times more than the surrounding soil. Experiments have proven that crops grown in earthworm inhabitant soils had increased the yields from 25% to over 300% than in earthworm fre...

Bugs to the rescue ugs that live in our gut are not only not harmful but provide signals that maintain gut tissue integrity, according to Seth Rakoff-Nahoum, Ruslan Medzhitov, and colleagues (Yale University, New Haven, CT). The benefits of commensal, or nonpathogenic gut bacteria, are well known. For example, these bacteria digest tricky carbohydrates and supply certain micronutrients. But ina...

The intestinal tract mucosa is exposed to a vast number of environmental antigens and a large community of commensal bacteria. The mucosal immune system has to provide both protection against pathogens and tolerance to harmless bacteria. Immune homeostasis depends on the interaction of indigenous commensal and transient bacteria (probiotics) with various components of the epithelium and the gut...

Alterations in the diversity of the gut microbiota are believed to underlie the development of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). A molecular phylogenetic analysis was performed to document temporal changes in the diversity of fecal bacteria of a patient who developed AAD. Antibiotic administration was associated with distinct changes in the diversity of the gut microbiota, including a marke...

The human gut contains a highly diverse microbial community that is essentially an open ecosystem, despite being deeply embedded within the human body. Food-associated fermentative bacteria, including probiotics, are major sources of ingested bacteria that may temporarily complement resident microbial communities, thus forming part of our transient microbiome. Here, we review data on the fate a...

Both animal model and human studies indicate that commensal bacteria may modify type 1 diabetes (T1D) development. However, the underlying mechanisms by which gut microbes could trigger or protect from diabetes are not fully understood, especially the interaction of commensal bacteria with pathogenic CD8 T cells. In this study, using islet-specific glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit-relate...

The human gut is colonized by a variety of large amounts of microbes that are collectively called intestinal microbiota. Most of these microbial residents will grow within the mucus layer that overlies the gut epithelium and will act as the first line of defense against both commensal and invading microbes. This mucus is essentially formed by mucins, a family of highly glycosylated protein that...