A team of researchers from Keio University School of Medicine in Japan and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard suggest that people who live to be 100 years or older have a unique microbiome that can protect them from certain bacterial infections , including those caused by multi-resistant bacteria .
The findings, published in Nature , could help researchers develop new ways to treat chronic inflammation and bacterial diseases.
Fecal samples
The study studied microbes found in fecal samples from 160 centennial Japanese who had an average age of 107 years. They found that centenarians, compared to people aged 85 to 89 and those aged 21 to 55, had higher levels of several bacterial species that produce molecules called secondary bile acids.
Secondary bile acids are generated by microbes in the colon and are believed to help protect the intestines from pathogens and regulate the body’s immune responses.
Larger and longer-term studies from different regions of the world can help uncover a causal link between longevity and bile acids . Meanwhile, the bacteria identified in this study could help researchers study how to manipulate bile acids to treat infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics.