Karen Pendergrass, Standards Team

Pathobionts are native microbes with the capacity to cause disease under disrupted host or microbiome conditions.

This study shows that oxygen drives a shift in S. aureus metabolism from glucose fermentation to aerobic lactate oxidation. Lactate supports growth and energy production under oxygenated conditions, offering a survival advantage in host niches where sugars are scarce but lactate is abundant.

This review synthesizes key mechanisms of Staphylococcus aureus virulence, including colonization strategies, immune evasion, metabolic adaptability, and antimicrobial resistance. It highlights major microbial associations, such as siderophore-mediated modulation of the nasal microbiome and VL-driven pathogenesis, offering translational insights for microbiome-targeted diagnostics, decolonization, and anti-virulence therapies.

This review outlines the role of metabolic endotoxemia—gut-derived PS in circulation—in chronic inflammation and disease. It explores microbial, dietary, and immunological mechanisms underlying endotoxemia and evaluates antimicrobial peptides and microbiome-targeted diets as promising interventions.

In healthy adults, co-ingesting orange juice with a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal dramatically blunted postprandial inflammatory responses. Orange juice prevented meal-induced rises in plasma endotoxin (PS) and monocyte Toll-like receptor expression, highlighting a novel dietary strategy to counteract metabolic endotoxemia and oxidative stress, with implications for mitigating insulin resistance and atherosclerosis.

This review uncovers the dual role of urease as both a catalytic and multifunctional virulence protein with broad clinical and agricultural implications, highlighting its impact on microbiome composition, host-pathogen dynamics, and therapeutic strategy.

What was studied?This pilot observational study assessed two interconnected phenomena: (1) the prevalence of nickel allergy in an overweight Italian population and (2) the impact of a normocaloric, Nickel Diet (NiD) on MI and waist circumference in nickel-sensitive individuals. The authors sought to evaluate whether nickel hypersensitivity is more common in overweight individuals and whether […]

Urease is a nickel-dependent microbial enzyme that breaks down urea into ammonia, altering local pH and nitrogen availability. While essential for microbial survival in acidic niches and nutrient-limited environments, urease activity also contributes to conditions like ulcers, urinary stones, colitis, and hepatic encephalopathy.

This review illustrates zinc’s dose- and species-dependent impact on gut microbiota, linking both deficiency and excess to dysbiosis and systemic inflammation. Physiological Zn enhances barrier integrity and probiotic efficiency, while excess Zn favors pathogens. Zn–microbiota interactions extend beyond the gut, influencing neurodevelopmental and metabolic diseases.

Excessive zinc intake may worsen endometriosis by activating estrogen receptors, disrupting immune function, and altering the microbiome. A large HANES study found that intake above 14 mg/day significantly increases endometriosis risk. With many supplements exceeding this threshold, routine zinc supplementation may contribute to disease progression rather than prevention, prompting a Suggested Termination of Practice (TOP).