There are many studies that have shown that the microbiota plays an important role in the immune response against diseases and, in particular, against respiratory infections such as Covid and the flu. In the book ‘The secret of health’ (Armando Curcio Editore) the immunologist Mauro Minelli, coordinator for Southern Italy of the Foundation for Personalized Medicine, together with doctors and researchers explores and explains the great potential of the human microbiota which, if healthy, is fit’ can be an aid in the fight against Covid and the flu.
“The main ‘commensal’ microbial community – explains Minelli to time.news Salute – is found in the intestine which, equipped with the largest mucous surface of the organism, hosts billions of microorganisms inside it. The intestinal microbiota, due to its composition and its metabolic and immunogenic products, influences host physiology, intestinal barrier permeability, and inflammatory state.In turn, host physiology, intestinal barrier function, and immune system are considered important factors to shape the composition of the microbiota”.
“The intestinal microbial population interacts with the host, if anything by unveiling some genetic characteristics but also by modulating the main signaling pathways such as the immune, metabolic, neurological, endocrine pathways – observes the immunologist. And it is precisely these signaling pathways that contribute to creating a true and proper ‘intestine-organ’ axis (brain, liver, lung, kidneys, etc.) with the microbiota playing a key role and the intestine understood as the hub of this network.And in fact, the regulatory role of the intestinal microbiota is not limited to the intestine, but also reaches distant organs”. “Today – recalls Minelli – the development of new methods of analysis of the intestinal microbiota, thanks to molecular diagnostic techniques, have allowed a detailed and complete characterization and, consequently, a possible correction planned through ad hoc strategies”.
“In the case of influenza viruses, for example, being able to count on a healthy and balanced intestinal microbiota it happens that the viruses, entering the organism they infect, have to contend with a fierce population of ‘commensal’ bacteria capable of exerting a very valid ‘shield effect’ – explains Minelli -.It is thanks to this protective shield that the intestinal microbial communities, in addition to blocking the attacking viruses and altering their replication, activate the immune system through a rich battery of ‘good’ On the other hand, it cannot be a coincidence that the elderly are much more sensitive to infections, since with age the microbiota also undergoes physiological processes of alteration and pathological involution”.
But what are the intestinal bacterial balances that we should try to achieve in order to guarantee active ageing? “In very long-lived subjects – explains Minelli – a rather characteristic identification target has already been detected for some time, based on a relative abundance of Bifidobacteria and Akkermansia, almost as if it were a kind of ‘footprint’ associated with a microbiota capable of promoting health and contribute to reaching the extreme limits of human life expectancy.More recently, particular attention has also been paid, due to their abundance in centenarians, to bacteria belonging to the Christensenellaceae family, a component of the microbiota which seems to be more influenced by the genetic makeup of the host”.
“Of course – observes the immunologist – at the moment, it is not easy to understand whether the specific peculiarities of the bacterial flora of the longest-living people are linked to their previous lifestyles or, perhaps, already present at a young age and so long preserved or whether it is endowments progressively acquired over an extraordinarily long period of time and, for this reason, capable of offering more advantageous options than the average living person.What can be added is that, thanks to the progressive advancement of knowledge, the adoption of well-balanced dietary profiles integrated and associated with the ability to make beneficial changes in the composition of the intestinal microbiota, they are able to produce significant benefits”.