Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[falconer66a]

BIG Topic — Gut Microbes, Health, And Drugs

How much can the contents of a persons gut effect the amount of a drug that will make it to the brain?

[Will restrain myself. Would take chapters to lay out all of this in detail.]

In my undergraduate years, late 60s, microbes, bacteria and fungi, were closely studied, of course. But in humans primarily in the gut, in the intestines (big and small). Veterinary people did a lot of that in agricultural animals, of course.

My biological areas of interest were with various wild animal species, one of which I am a recognized expert (well, with the name “falconer” you can image what sort of organism I study). I did take some bacteriology, and later taught a good deal of it in advanced placement biology classes. I know a bit more than just the rudiments of bacteriology.

But until the turn of the millennium, human gut microbes were seldom regarded or known to have much effect on anything systemic, in all of the body, beyond classic digestion and vitamin synthesis, etc. In my college bacteriology lab had I raised my hand and asked, “Doctor, just how could various populations of varying bacteria in the gut affect mental states, immunological outcomes, and susceptibilities, causes, or severities of various central nervous system diseases” the following would have been his stern response. “Sit down. Go back and read the lesson in the text. You are trying to connect things that can’t possibly be connected! Stupid question. You must be [as I was] in the college of education.”

Back then, no one would have even entertained my question. Very clear. Microbes in the gut affect nothing but nutrition and gut health itself. There’s no functional connections to the nervous system to gut bugs. They just metabolize, create wastes, get excreted, and, at worst, infect the blood if injured or inoculated therein. End of the matter.

Today, biologists continue to be astounded by hard-to-believe, but proven findings of just phenomenal, enigmatic effects that gut microbes can have on external organs and systems.

It’s not a function of “how much.” Rather, it’s “how” bacteria can affect so many formerly unknown body processes and vulnerabilities.

Ponder this.

Fecal transplants are now an emerging and very successful treatment for antibiotic-induced diarrhea. Many antibiotics wipe out healthful gut bacteria, leaving behind bugs that make lose bowels. Not only discomforting, but some remaining bacteria, particularly Clostridium difficile (“C. diff”) exude toxins that eat away at the intestinal wall. That can lead to death.

But, physically insert a volume of normal poop from a normal person into the affected rectum (or higher bowl), and the normal bacteria take over and restore a normal bowl homeostasis. No more diarrhea, no intestinal toxins. All is well. Except, when....

Except when feces from an otherwise healthy but obese person are transplanted into a skinny person. Quite often, that person sometimes thereafter becomes as obese as the fecal donor. Just how the new bacteria induce the skinny guy to start eating twice as much, and/or metabolize food much less is completely unknown. No good explanation for this. But, no doubt, the new population of bacteria changes systemic, body-wide lipid metabolism drastically.

Many more stories like this, particularly in correlations between certain gut microbe populations and diseases. A number of Nobel Prizes in Medicine await those who fully explain and learn to apply all that will be discovered about the effects of gut microbes.

No answers yet. Just increasing observations and discoveries. It is known that intestinal nerve endings do have unique chemical receptors and send feedback signals to the brain. Those are more complex than formerly thought or known.

For Anavex, there may well be correlations between certain gut bacteria (or fungi) and drug efficacies for various diseases. Find the detected bacterium, know then that the correlated drug has a high chance of working.

In time, fecal samples may be taken for all dementia presentations. Fecal DNA will be mechanically analyzed, identifying microbe species of interest. Correlated drugs would then be prescribed.

That’s “Precision Medicine,” exactly matching patient traits to drugs known to work with those specific traits.