ISLAMABAD (Pakistan Point News / Online - 04th June, 2019) A recent discovery could help to explain further why living with dirt can benefit human health. Scientists have found that a bacterium that lives in soil makes an anti-inflammatory fatty acid that can promote resilience to stress.A bacterium called Mycobacterium vaccae could protect against stress and anxiety.Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) led a study that investigated Mycobacterium vaccae, an environmental bacterium that feeds on decaying organic matter.
Previous studies with cells and laboratory animals have shown that M. vaccae can reduce inflammation and protect against stress.However, as the authors explain in a recent Psychopharmacology paper about their work, "the molecular mechanisms underlying anti-inflammatory effects of M. vaccae are not known."In the new study, the researchers "purified and identified a unique anti-inflammatory triglyceride" from the soil bacterium. They then synthesized and tested the "free fatty acid" version of the fat in mouse immune cells.
The fatty acid has the name 10(Z)-hexadecenoic acid, and the team used "next-generation sequencing techniques" to investigate its interaction with macrophages, a type of immune cell.The researchers saw that the fatty acid bound to a particular receptor, or signaling protein, in the cells. This event, in turn, blocked a number of inflammation-driving molecular pathways. The name of the receptor is peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR).Further experiments revealed that treating the immune cells with the fatty acid before stimulating them increased their resistance to inflammation.
