Warning as popular children’s medicine could raise risk of chronic illness
MEDICINES commonly dished out to kids could raise the risk of a chronic illness, scientists have claimed.
Giving tots antibiotics during a key developmental window could stop insulin-producing cells from growing in the pancreas.
This could heighten the risk of developing diabetes in later life, a study conducted on mice showed.
Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) said their study highlighted how important the infant microbiome was for long term health.
The microbiome is a collection of microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi, that live in and on a baby’s body.
These microbes are particularly concentrated in areas like the gut, skin, and mouth and begin to develop at birth, influenced by factors such as the type of delivery mums choose and whether they breastfeed their babies.
Researchers said their discovery concerning antibiotics could lead to new ways of treating or preventing metabolic diseases, including type 1 diabetes.
First author Jennifer Hill, assistant professor in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at CU’s BioFrontiers Institute, said: “We hope our study provides more awareness for how important the infant microbiome actually is for shaping development.
“This work also provides important new evidence that microbe-based approaches could someday be used to not only prevent but also reverse diabetes.”
Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to make a hormone called insulin, leading to high blood sugar.
An estimated 5.6 million people in the UK have diabetes – but type 1 only affects one in 10 of them.
The disease is often diagnosed in childhood, though people can develop it at any age.
Previous studies have shown that children who are breastfed or born vaginally – both promote a healthy infant microbiome – are less likely to develop type 1 diabetes.
Some research also shows that giving babies antibiotics early on can inadvertently kill good bugs along with the bad, boosting diabetes risk.
Babies are born with a small amount of pancreatic “beta cells,” the only cells in the body that produce insulin, according to Dr Hill.
Sometime in their first year, these beta cells experience a surge in growth.
This only happens once in a person’s lifetime, so “if, for whatever reason, we don’t undergo this event of expansion and proliferation, that can be a cause of diabetes”, Dr Hill said.
She and her team conducted their study on mice, giving them broad-spectrum antibiotics to mice during a specific window – the human equivalent of about seven to 12 months.
Mice given a dose of the drugs developed fewer insulin-producing cells, had higher blood sugar levels and lower insulin levels by the time they reached adulthood.
“This, to me, was shocking and a bit scary,” Dr Hill’s co-author Professor June Round, said.
“It showed how important the microbiota is during this very short early period of development.”
Dr Hill added: “Our study identifies a critical window in early life when specific microbes are necessary to promote pancreatic cell development.”
‘Harnessing power of germs’
The study author stressed that she’s not “anti-antibiotics”, but suggested that doctors could give microbiome-boosting drugs or supplements alongside antibiotics, to replace the bugs they inadvertently kill.
Previous research has suggested that giving babies born by C-section “milkshakes” with gut-boosting bugs may protect them from disease in later life.
In a second experiment, Dr Hill and Prof Round fed newborn mice “poop slushies” containing microbes to see if it would affect their production of beta cells.
When the rodents were given poop from healthy infants aged between seven to 12 months that contained a fungus called Candida dubliniensis, their beta cells began to grow.
Poop from infants of other ages didn’t do the same.
Candida dublineinsis is abundant in human babies only during this time period, researchers noted.
“This suggests that humans also have a narrow window of colonization by these beta cell promoting microbes,” Dr Hill said.
When male mice genetically predisposed to type 1 diabetes who were given the fungus as babies developed diabetes less than 15 per cent of the time, researchers observed.
Mice that didn’t receive the fungus got diabetes 90 per cent of the time.
When researchers gave the fungus to adult mice whose insulin-producing cells had been killed off, those cells regenerated.
Dr Hill hopes scientists will one day be able to use microbes to develop treatments to reverse diabetes.
“Historically we have interpreted germs as something we want to avoid, but we probably have way more beneficial microbes than pathogens,” she said.
“By harnessing their power, we can do a lot to benefit human health.”
Type 1 vs type 2 diabetes
There are two main types of diabetes, which causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high.
Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition where the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce the hormone insulin.
It affects around 344,000 people in the UK.
Type 2 diabetes on the other hand is far more common, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the 4.4million adults with diabetes.
It occurs when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin, or the body’s cells don’t react to it properly.
There are no lifestyle changes you can make to lower your risk of type 1 diabetes.
But you may be at higher risk of type 2 diabetes if you are overweight or obese, eat unhealthily, have a family history of the condition, take certain medications for a long time, have high blood pressure, and have had gestational diabetes during pregnancy.
People of Asian, Black African or African Caribbean origin are also at increased risk.
Source: NHS and Diabetes UK