Yun-Gi Kim: Know Your Gut Bacteria, Know Yourself

2018/11/29

There is a saying by Sun Tzu: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." This means that if you are well-acquainted with both your enemy and your allies, you will not lose a battle. I believe this saying can also be applied to human relationships. By inferring and respecting the feelings of others, while also looking at and reflecting on yourself objectively, you can build a good relationship of trust. Furthermore, I believe the same can be said for gut bacteria, which is my current research subject. That is, I have come to strongly realize through my actual research that a deep understanding of not only our physiological functions but also the gut bacteria that are our internal symbiotic organisms is important for maintaining health and preventing disease.

Advances in analytical technologies (such as next-generation sequencing and omics analysis) over the past 10 to 15 years have gradually revealed the full picture of the composition and metabolites of the gut microbiota. As a result, it has been suggested that gut bacteria deeply influence our physiological functions and various diseases. This is thought to be because the gut microbiota, which has more than a hundred times as many genes as humans, produces substances that we cannot create, and these act on the host's metabolic, immune, and nervous systems. I have also clarified that the order Clostridiales plays a central role in inhibiting the colonization of intestinal pathogenic bacteria, that prostaglandin E2 produced by intestinal fungi is involved in the aggravation of allergic airway inflammation, and that immune stimulation by bacterial components derived from commensal bacteria is necessary for mucosal adjuvants to be effective. I am currently working hard on research aimed at searching for gut bacteria and metabolites that act suppressively against various diseases and elucidating their mechanisms of action.

It is expected that the symbiotic relationship between humans and gut bacteria, which began with the history of mankind, has evolved with purposiveness. Therefore, these gut microbes likely provide us with benefits beyond our imagination. However, the composition and metabolism of gut bacteria depend heavily on our lifestyle habits (such as diet), and in some cases, gut bacteria can become a double-edged sword that harms health. Why not start paying attention to your gut bacteria as well as your own body (organs) from today? If you do, I am sure that "disease will not be a threat."