Our body is home to a hundred trillion bacteria. There are ten of them for every one of our own cells. These residents, collectively known as the microbiome, are found throughout our bodies but the biggest populations live in our guts. They act like a hidden organ, which manufactures nutrients that we cannot produce, harvests energy from our food, and suppresses the growth of harmful bacteria that would make us ill. They are more than just passengers – they are our partners in life.
But they can be turned against us. Two new studies in mice have found that viruses can exploit gut bacteria to gain a foothold in our bodies and evade our immune systems. Our microscopic allies can turn into unwitting collaborators for dangerous infections.
The virus that causes polio is one of them. Before infecting the nervous system and causing paralysis, poliovirus first stakes its claim in the gut, and it relies on the local bacteria to do so. Sharon Kuss from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center managed to protect mice from the virus by first treating them with antibiotics, which reduced the number of bacteria in their guts by a million times. As a result, twice as many of the mice survived a bout of poliovirus. If Kuss reintroduced the bacteria, the virus bounced back, and more mice died.
