SCIENTISTS DISCOVER UNIDENTIFIED VIRUSES IN BABIES' GUTS

Scientists believe that the presence of more than 200 previously unidentified viral families in babies' intestines may play a significant role in preventing childhood chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes.

While the importance of young children's gut bacteria in preventing chronic diseases later in life has long been recognised, little is known about the numerous viruses present. A team from the University of Copenhagen studied and mapped the nappy contents of 647 healthy Danish one-year-olds for five years in order to better understand.

"We discovered an unusually high number of unidentified viruses in the faeces of these infants. Not only were there thousands of new virus species discovered but to our surprise, the viruses represented more than 200 families of virus types that had not yet been classified," according to Professor Dennis Sandris Nielsen of the university's Department of Food Science.

"This means that, from early in life, healthy children are tumbling about with an extreme diversity of gut viruses, which probably have a major impact on whether they develop various diseases later in life," he continued.

The researchers mapped a total of 10,000 viral species in the children's faeces i.e. ten times more viral species were discovered than there were bacterial species in the same children, according to the study that was published in Nature Microbiology.

These viral species are spread out among 248 distinct viral families, only 16 of which were previously recognised. Furthermore, the team determined that 90% of the viruses were bacteriophages, which are bacterial viruses. These viruses do not spread disease because they do not target the children's own cells but rather bacteria as their hosts.

The origin of the numerous viruses in one-year-olds is still a mystery to researchers. They assume it comes from the outside, possibly from pets, children putting dirt in their mouths, dirty fingers, and other things.

Shah said that by understanding the role that bacteria and viruses play in a healthy immune system, we may be able to prevent many of the chronic diseases that plague so many people today, such as depression and arthritis.