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January 27, 2022
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VIDEO: Changes in duodenal microbiome linked to aging

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In a Healio video exclusive, Ruchi Mathur, MD, of the Medically Associated Science and Technology Program at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, discussed how the aging process is associated with changes to the small intestinal microbiome.

Mathur and colleagues studied duodenal aspirates in 251 patients, aged 18 to 80 years, and observed decreased microbial diversity in older patients, driven by increased relative abundance of phylum Proteobacteria. Further, along with chronologic age, changes in taxa also correlated with certain medications and diseases.

“By addressing the confounders associated with medications and burden of disease, we can look at the microbiome to tease out, specifically, the changes that are affected by these confounders and then we can focus on small intestinal microbial changes associated specifically with chronological aging,” Mathur said. “Perhaps by doing that, we can affect meaningful change with targeted diagnostics and therapeutics that can contribute to human health as we grow older.”