Professor Heenam Stanley Kim reveals the relationship between antibiotic scars on gut microbiota and chronic diseases
Gut microbiota imbalances cause chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and atopic dermatitis
Fundamental treatment for chronic diseases begins with the gut microbiota
▲ Professor Heenam Stanley Kim, Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine
Professor Heenam Stanley Kim of the College of Medicine revealed for the first time how chronic diseases develop from antibiotic scars left on the gut microbiota.
Antibiotics are essential in treating bacterial infections but are associated with various chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and atopic dermatitis. Based on decades of research, it has been found that gut microbiota imbalances play a role in the development of chronic diseases, but the underlying mechanisms have not yet been fully elucidated.
Together with post-doc researcher Hyojeong Yi, Professor Kim has suggested for the first time that physiological reactions in the gut microbiota contribute to the state of imbalance triggered by antibiotics. That is, the gut microbiota exhibit a stringent response when exposed to antibiotics, and the increased tolerance to antibiotics may result in severe microbiota imbalances. Because most bacteria with an antibiotic tolerance have undergone mutation and tend to retain their physical and genetic characteristics for a long time, the team found that this imbalance is not easy to correct.
The team’s findings on the impact of the stringent response by the gut microbiota have laid the foundation for research that expands beyond compositional changes of microorganism communities. In addition, the results highlight the importance of physiological research in examining the relationship between gut microbiota and chronic diseases.
Professor Kim said, “We have overlooked the fact that antibiotics, which have played a pivotal role in the development of modern medicine, can kill beneficial gut bacteria and have negative consequences on our health. We must prevent the abuse of antibiotics and conduct intensive research on gut microbiota to help patients with chronic diseases.”
The results were published online under the title “Antibiotic Scars Left in the Gut Microbiota by Stringent Response” in Trends in Microbiology, which publishes commissioned articles from experts in the field, on July 16.
Professor Kim, who earned his doctoral degree in microbiology at the University of Illinois in Chicago, joined Korea University’s College of Medicine in 2006. His key research areas include gut microbiota and antibiotic tolerance.
While antibiotics are necessary to protect our health, they can also leave deep scars on beneficial bacteria in the gut. An excessive increase in the number of antibiotic-tolerant bacteria produced by the stringent response may lead to severe imbalances in the gut microbiota. Moreover, problems experienced during infancy may persist in adulthood because of the long-lasting nature of gut microbiota imbalances.