Gut microbiota may 'prevent and cure' rotavirus

An accidental discovery in mice may lead to a cure for one of the world's most deadly infections.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that each year, 215,000Trusted Source children worldwide under the age of 5 years die from dehydration due to severe diarrhea.

An untreatable rotavirus infection is responsible for these cases.

Now, researchers at the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta have identified specific intestinal microbiota, or microorganisms, that can prevent and cure rotavirus infections.

Their study findings appear in the journal Cell.

"This study," says senior author Andrew Gewirtz, "shows that one big determinant of proneness to rotavirus infection is microbiota composition."

What is rotavirus?
Rotavirus gets its name from "rota" — the Latin word for "wheel" — as the virus has a round shape. It most commonly affects infants and young children, and it spreads easily. People with the virus can transfer it by sneezing and coughing or by using unwashed or improperly washed hands to touch, and thus contaminate, surfaces and objects.

The virus can transfer between people via surfaces such as counters and sinks, as well as on shared toys, tools, and utensils.

Vaccines prevent infection in most cases and reduce the chance of a severe infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that the rotavirus vaccine prevents 40,000 to 50,000Trusted Source hospitalizations in the United States annually.

According to the CDC, the symptomsTrusted Source of infection include "severe watery diarrhea, vomiting, fever, or abdominal pain," with diarrhea and vomiting typically lasting for 3 to 8 days.

In areas with an adequate supply of clean water, the administration of fluids prevents life threatening dehydration.

Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere, and rotavirus infection is particularly deadly in some low income parts of the world.

Rotavirus infections can be mild or severe, and the reasons for this remained unknown until the discovery by the GSU researchers.

An accidental breakthrough
As the authors explain in their paper, "[rotavirus] clearance typically requires adaptive immunity," but in this case, the scientists "unintentionally" created a model of immunodeficient mice that were also resistant to the virus.

So, the scientists hypothesized that this might be due to "select microbes" that offered protection against the virus. To verify their hypothesis, they tested whether the virus "resistance was transferred by co-housing and fecal transplant."