Herbsprout.com

Research at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York suggests that the microbiome may go even further than improving our immune system and lowering risk of chronic diseases — by “turning bile acids into immune-boosting compounds that help the body fight cancer”, according to an April 17 2025 report in Discover magazine and Cell.

 

Said researcher Chun-Jun Guo, he and his team found that gut bacteria can transform bile acids, more than fifty different bile acid molecules modified by the microbiota. Among the 56 bile acids his team discovered and altered, they found four bile acid molecules that interact with sex hormones like androgen to regulate many aspects of human development.

 

Previous studies have shown that blocking these receptors can enhance the ability of these immune cells to fight tumors. The teams’ mice studies have proven this to be the case, enhancing T-cell responses within tumors and killing cancer cells.

 

 

 

 

Researchers discovered new microbial species and never-before-reported metagenomes from several African sites, according to Professor Scott Hazelhurst, senior scientist at the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB) and Professor of Bioinformatics, Wits University, as reported in a January 30 2025 issue of Phys.org. The study adds high-quality genomes of 1,005 bacterial and 40,135 viral species.

 

We now know that geography largely shapes microbiome differences, with some species thriving in rural areas and others in industrialized settings,” says co-author Dr. Luicer Ingasia Olubayo of the SBIMB as quoted in the Phys.org report.

 

The study identified “food deserts” where there is a gross deficiency of healthier fresh produce and foods. In addition, there is the absence of important bacteria, Treponema, in urban participants. The study found that people living in food deserts have a “higher risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.”