{"id":468701,"date":"2025-12-24T10:41:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T10:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468701\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T10:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T10:41:23","slug":"tiny-molecule-made-by-gut-bacteria-could-cut-type-2-diabetes-risk-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468701\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Molecule Made by Gut Bacteria Could Cut Type 2 Diabetes Risk : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

A compound produced by gut bacteria could play a vital role in managing and preventing type 2 diabetes<\/a>, according to a study led by researchers from Imperial College London (ICL).<\/p>\n

The small molecule, called trimethylamine<\/a> (TMA), is a major type of bacterial metabolite \u2013 a class of chemicals produced naturally through processes of transforming nutrients into energy and building blocks.<\/p>\n

Scientists have now found evidence in human cell models and lab mice that TMA could protect the body from some of the damage triggered by a high-fat diet. Specifically, it has the effect of dampening down inflammation and improving insulin response, both of which reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Oral Health And Diabetes Have a Crucial Link, Expert Reveals<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Previous research<\/a> had already connected some of the dots between TMA and insulin resistance, though the metabolite’s exact role in the chemical conversation between gut microbes and their host wasn’t clear.<\/p>\n

Through a series of experiments designed to screen for individual metabolites and test TMA’s ability to mitigate the impacts of high-fat diets on mice and human tissues, the researchers found the abundant microbial chemical may break some of the links in the chain between diabetes, obesity, and low-level inflammation.<\/p>\n

“This flips the narrative,” says<\/a> ICL biochemist Marc-Emmanuel Dumas. “We’ve shown that a molecule from our gut microbes can actually protect against the harmful effects of a poor diet through a new mechanism.”<\/p>\n

\"TrimethylamineThe researchers investigated the effects of supplementing high-fat diets with a molecule called choline. (Chilloux et al., Nat. Metab., 2025)<\/p>\n

TMA is produced when microbes in the gut break down choline, an essential nutrient found in foods such as eggs and meat. The researchers demonstrated that increasing choline in high-fat diets<\/a> blocked some of its worst consequences.<\/p>\n

Further analysis revealed that TMA inhibits the IRAK4 protein, which usually triggers an inflammatory response when a high-fat diet is detected. In the future, a similar prevention might be replicated through drugs, reducing the degree of inflammation resulting from diets high in fat.<\/p>\n

TMA has also been associated<\/a> with cardiovascular disease in earlier studies, in part through the related compound trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) \u2013 so the twist that it can actually be beneficial to the body is an interesting one.<\/p>\n

“In view of the growing threat of diabetes worldwide and its devastating complications for the whole patient, including the brain and heart, a new solution is direly needed,” says<\/a> cardiologist and professor of medicine Peter Liu, from the University of Ottawa in Canada.<\/p>\n

“Our team’s work connecting Western-style foods, TMA produced by the microbiome, and its effect on the immune switch IRAK4, may open entirely new ways to treat or prevent diabetes, a known risk factor for heart disease.”<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s still early days for this research, and these findings will need to be replicated in human participants over a longer period of time. Ultimately, we may have a new way of managing insulin resistance<\/a> that leads to type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n

Related: After 60 Years, Diabetes Drug Found to Unexpectedly Affect The Brain<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The study also has wider implications that are significant. It shows that the bacteria in our guts, long known to be vital to our health<\/a>, can release chemicals (like TMA) that interact with and control kinases (like IRAK4) \u2013 signaling switches that control a variety of biological pathways and processes.<\/p>\n

“It’s a new way of thinking about how the microbiome influences our health,” says<\/a> Dumas.<\/p>\n

“Our work opens exciting possibilities with kinases as a new repertoire of targets accessible by microbiome-based therapeutic interventions in obesity and diabetes.”<\/p>\n

The research has been published in Nature Metabolism<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A compound produced by gut bacteria could play a vital role in managing and preventing type 2 diabetes,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[210,352,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-468701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-msft-content","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115774128374965373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}