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Slowing down the aging process might be possible one day with supplements derived from gut bacteria. Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have identified bacterial genes and compounds that extend the life of and also slow down the progression of tumors and the accumulation of amyloid-beta, a compound associated with Alzheimer’s disease, in the laboratory worm C. elegans.

Scientists from the Gothenburg and Girona universities found that the treatment of type 2 diabetes with metformin is changing the composition and characteristics of the intestinal microbiome. This has a significant auxiliary effect in therapy, establishing a system of regulation of the level of sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin in the blood.

Microbes can control their animal hosts by manipulating the molecular machinery of their cells, triggering patterns of gene expression that consequently contribute to health and disease, new research shows. The work, which was conducted in zebrafish and mice cells, could have implications for human inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.