Wallen-Russell Christopher, Pearlman Nancy, Wallen-Russell Samuel, Cretoiu Dragos, Thompson Dana Claudia, Voinea Silviu Cristian
The Skin Microbiome School, Pavane Research Centre, Reading RG1 4QD, UK.
Ecology Center of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90035, USA.
Microorganisms. 2023 Nov 16;11(11):2784. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms11112784.
There has been a catastrophic loss of biodiversity in ecosystems across the world. A similar crisis has been observed in the human gut microbiome, which has been linked to "all human diseases affecting westernized countries". This is of great importance because chronic diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide and make up 90% of America's healthcare costs. Disease development is complex and multifactorial, but there is one part of the body's interlinked ecosystem that is often overlooked in discussions about whole-body health, and that is the skin microbiome. This is despite it being a crucial part of the immune, endocrine, and nervous systems and being continuously exposed to environmental stressors. Here we show that a parallel biodiversity loss of 30-84% has occurred on the skin of people in the developed world compared to our ancestors. Research has shown that dysbiosis of the skin microbiome has been linked to many common skin diseases and, more recently, that it could even play an active role in the development of a growing number of whole-body health problems, such as food allergies, asthma, cardiovascular diseases, and Parkinson's, traditionally thought unrelated to the skin. Damaged skin is now known to induce systemic inflammation, which is involved in many chronic diseases. We highlight that biodiversity loss is not only a common finding in dysbiotic ecosystems but also a type of dysbiosis. As a result, we make the case that biodiversity loss in the skin microbiome is a major contributor to the chronic disease epidemic. The link between biodiversity loss and dysbiosis forms the basis of this paper's focus on the subject. The key to understanding why biodiversity loss creates an unhealthy system could be highlighted by complex physics. We introduce entropy to help understand why biodiversity has been linked with ecosystem health and stability. Meanwhile, we also introduce ecosystems as being governed by "non-linear physics" principles-including chaos theory-which suggests that every individual part of any system is intrinsically linked and implies any disruption to a small part of the system (skin) could have a significant and unknown effect on overall system health (whole-body health). Recognizing the link between ecosystem health and human health allows us to understand how crucial it could be to maintain biodiversity across systems everywhere, from the macro-environment we inhabit right down to our body's microbiome. Further, in-depth research is needed so we can aid in the treatment of chronic diseases and potentially change how we think about our health. With millions of people currently suffering, research to help mitigate the crisis is of vital importance.
全球生态系统中的生物多样性遭受了灾难性损失。人类肠道微生物群也出现了类似危机,它与“影响西方国家的所有人类疾病”有关。这一点至关重要,因为慢性病是全球主要死因,占美国医疗保健成本的90%。疾病发展复杂且受多种因素影响,但在关于全身健康的讨论中,人体相互关联的生态系统中有一部分常常被忽视,那就是皮肤微生物群。尽管它是免疫、内分泌和神经系统的关键组成部分,且持续暴露于环境压力源中。我们在此表明,与我们的祖先相比,发达国家人群的皮肤微生物群生物多样性平行损失了30%至84%。研究表明,皮肤微生物群失调与许多常见皮肤病有关,最近还发现它甚至可能在越来越多的全身健康问题(如食物过敏、哮喘、心血管疾病和帕金森病,传统上认为与皮肤无关)的发展中发挥积极作用。现在已知受损皮肤会引发全身炎症,而全身炎症与许多慢性病有关。我们强调,生物多样性丧失不仅是失调生态系统中的常见现象,也是一种失调类型。因此,我们认为皮肤微生物群中的生物多样性丧失是慢性病流行的主要原因。生物多样性丧失与失调之间的联系构成了本文关注该主题的基础。理解生物多样性丧失为何会导致不健康系统的关键,可以通过复杂物理学来突出。我们引入熵来帮助理解生物多样性为何与生态系统健康和稳定性相关联。同时,我们还引入生态系统受“非线性物理学”原理(包括混沌理论)支配的观点,这表明任何系统的每个单独部分都内在相连,意味着对系统的一小部分(皮肤)的任何干扰都可能对整体系统健康(全身健康)产生重大且未知的影响。认识到生态系统健康与人类健康之间的联系,使我们明白在从我们居住的宏观环境到身体微生物群的各个系统中维持生物多样性有多重要。此外,还需要进行更深入的研究,以便我们能够辅助慢性病治疗,并可能改变我们对健康的看法。目前有数百万人深受其害,有助于缓解这一危机的研究至关重要。
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