Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The brain has its own microbiome

newscientist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 53 posts

Re: The brain has its own microbiome

#21

Post by sa501428 »

jac241 wrote: post #13

If there’s a brain microbiome then why does nothing grow when I send CSF from an EVD?

Looks like they are using molecular methods on post-mortem brains - all sorts of bugs can grow post-mortem and molecular methods can give false-positives as well as detect non-viable microbes, etc. But that's also based on a quick skim / haven't read the full paper yet.

Culturing from CSF in general will depend on the concentration of the microbe, whether they are viable, if antibiotics/antivirals were already initiated pre-collection, whether it's plated on the appropriate media (e.g. a rare microbe that only grows on one specific type of agar plate), etc. Culturing viruses is also hard/many hospital micro labs have moved away from that.

I think this study may suggest that we are failing to detect certain brain infections (and many are notoriously hard to diagnose if you don't catch them in the right window of time). But a brain microbiome sounds far-fetched. We even plate from brain tissue directly at times and aren't growing a bunch of organisms. I'd approach that claim with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Re: The brain has its own microbiome

#22

Post by piva00 »

hajjf wrote: post #10

Where are we in the hype cycle regarding microbiome? Would it be feasible to launch a startup that leverages the synergy between AI, the blockchain and gut bacteria? I am serious!

What's the synergy between blockchain and the others in this scenario?

Re: The brain has its own microbiome

#24

Post by FollowingTheDao »

hinoki wrote: post #7
krageon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can take it one step further: There are microbes everywhere in your body, they matter and they do things. When you take them away or fuck with them too much, weird things start happening. It is I think not a particularly surprising take. But then often it can be valuable to have things that are kind of obvious codified into a paper of some sort so that we no longer have to rely on "but isn't that obvious?" and can…

Is there any evidence (yet?) of an autoimmune disease caused by the immune system accidentally attacking part of the micro-biome?

The immune systems does nothing by accident. The immune system is always trying to keep the microbiome in balance and the microbiome helps the immune system as well.

There is no winning, only balance.

Re: The brain has its own microbiome

#26

Post by FollowingTheDao »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #11

I have a genetic partial immunodeficiency (PNP Deficiency) and I constantly get fungal infections. Living in warm, humid climates is a challenge for me. Reading just the beginning of that article "she experienced chronic pain, digestive problems and a cardiac arrhythmia", well, that is my life. I constantly have minor aspergillosis, and I have some lung nodules from some past fungal infections as well. Keeping the mi…

So, something is weird here, just want to invade this thread and ask HN if there should be a change.

I literally have no idea why someone would downvote this comment. But someone did. This does not bother my ego, it bothers my sensibilities.

So, maybe we should not allow downvotes unless someone comments on why they thing the comment is negative. No need to do this for upvotes because there is no need to comment on things you agree with.

Downvoting without commenting leads to suppression without justification which can be bias or outright manipulation.

Or maybe the up and downvotes are the problem?

Re: The brain has its own microbiome

#27

Post by codethief »

I mentioned Adam Savage's "Scariest [Podcast] Episode Yet" in a different context the other day[0] in which I remember Joe DeRisi[1] saying something along the lines of brain & spinal fluid being "absolutely pristine" when it comes to the presence/absence of a microbiome (in healthy individuals) and that it'd be real problem if there were one.

I'm just a layman but can anyone ELI5 how this can be squared with the OP, specifically with statements like

> It turns out our grey matter is teeming with bacteria, viruses and fungi

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41752034

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_DeRisi

Re: The brain has its own microbiome

#29

Post by fredgrott »

sa501428 wrote: post #21
jac241 wrote: post #13

If there’s a brain microbiome then why does nothing grow when I send CSF from an EVD?

Looks like they are using molecular methods on post-mortem brains - all sorts of bugs can grow post-mortem and molecular methods can give false-positives as well as detect non-viable microbes, etc. But that's also based on a quick skim / haven't read the full paper yet. Culturing from CSF in general will depend on the concentration of the microbe, whether they are viable, if antibiotics/antivirals were already initia…

plus we have the fact that the brain at night shifts the fluid to the periphery of the blood vessels to clear out the lactate bound NH4 which would impact any microbiome if it exists...

Re: The brain has its own microbiome

#30

Post by tunn3l »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #11

I have a genetic partial immunodeficiency (PNP Deficiency) and I constantly get fungal infections. Living in warm, humid climates is a challenge for me. Reading just the beginning of that article "she experienced chronic pain, digestive problems and a cardiac arrhythmia", well, that is my life. I constantly have minor aspergillosis, and I have some lung nodules from some past fungal infections as well. Keeping the mi…

Hey!

Reminds me a bit of myself. After 2 COVID infections and 3 vaccines, I began experiencing digestive problems, sleep disturbance, fatigue and severe brain fog. I also was often dismissed by the doctors as simply being depressed. But I now know that I have long COVID. The fight against it is still ongoing and you can read about my struggle with it here: https://tunn3l.pro.

I'm currently working with my girlfriend on a sticker campaign to educate people on these illnesses (esp. me/cfs) in order to remove the Stigmatisation that many patients with similar symptoms expierience.

Post reply on HN