An illness to a single bacteria is a standard medical practice. Helicobacter pylori for ulcer, or one of several E. Coli (E. coli O157:H7 and other STECs like E. coli O145 and E. coli O121:H19) for food poisoning.
If we expand our eyes and ask “What if the condition is caused by over or under production of some metabolite?”
For CFS over production of d-lactic acid has been proposed, see this post
Let us assume that this is part of it. So which bacteria produces it?
Our old friend DataPunk lists:
PRODUCED AS ENDPRODUCT BY:
- Aerococcus
- Allobaculum
- Anaerostipes
- Atopobium
- Bacillus coagulans
- Bifidobacterium
- Cardiobacteriales
- Cardiobacterium
- Carnobacterium
- Catenibacterium
- Enterococcus
- Faecalibaculum
- Faecalibaculum rodentium
- Gemella
- Haemophilus
- Holdemania
- Lachnobacterium
- Lactobacillales
- Lactobacillus
- Lactobacillus acidophilus
- Lactobacillus casei
- Lactobacillus delbrueckii
- Lactobacillus helveticus
- Lactobacillus rhamnosus
- Lactococcus
- Leptotrichia
- Leuconostoc
- Microbacterium
- Moryella
- Oenococcus
- Pediococcus
- Rothia
- Ruminococcus faecis
- Scardovia
- Serratia marcescens
- Streptococcus
- Tetragenococcus
- Vagococcus
Let us suppose that we also have low or no butyrate – again datapunk lists:
PRODUCED AS ENDPRODUCT BY:
- Agathobacter rectalis
- Allobaculum
- Anaerostipes
- Anaerostipes hadrus
- Anaerotruncus
- Butyricicoccus
- Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum
- Butyricicoccus sp. ORNL_6EZ5-Gt_4_Pl1-35
- Butyricicoccus sp. ORNL_6EZ5-Gt_6_Pl2-147
- Butyricicoccus sp. ORNL_V42_E05
- Butyricicoccus sp. ORNL_W42_C10
- Butyricimonas
- Catenibacterium
- Christensenella
- Cloacibacillus
- Cloacibacillus porcorum
- Clostridia
- Clostridiales
- Clostridium
- Clostridium butyricum
- Coprococcus
- Defluviitalea
- Eubacteriaceae
- Eubacterium limosum
- Eubacterium oxidoreducens
- Faecalibacterium
- Faecalibacterium prausnitzii
- Flavonifractor
- Flavonifractor plautii
- Fusibacter
- Fusobacterium
- Lachnobacterium
- Lachnospiraceae
- Moryella
- Moryella indoligenes
- Oscillospira
- Peptoniphilus
- Roseburia
- Roseburia faecis
- Roseburia hominis
- Roseburia intestinalis
- Roseburia inulinivorans
- Ruminococcus torques
- Subdoligranulum
So how many possible “too much and not enough” pairs are there if we just pick just one from each list… 38 x 44 = 1,672!!!
My current gut feeling is that taking the % of each taxonomy in each group –> producing a fuzzy measure of a 0.23% Lactic acid and 0.01% butyrate, may reveal clearer patterns for symptoms than the individual bacteria taxonomy. This is a fuzzy measure because the production of lactic acid and butyrate vary greatly from genus to genus.
Other options for stepping away from pine needles of individual bacteria to looking at tree as a whole include KEGG pathways,
KEGG pathways produce some tentative correlation for D-Arginine and D-ornithine metabolism in CFS/IBS in my earlier post.
Bottom Line
The same change of metabolites in the body can happen in many many different ways. Looking at the metabolites (even with fuzzy ‘punted’ data base on what is available) may produce better predictive results than just looking at individual bacteria.