Project description
Gut bacteria and age-dependent bone and muscle loss
The gastrointestinal tract is home to a plethora of bacteria – and in very large numbers. Bacterial cells outnumber host cells by a factor of 10. The gut microbiome (GM) is critical to health and disease, with established connections to the endocrine, nervous and cardiovascular systems among others. The ERC-funded HeMAFA project aims to investigate whether a change in GM composition is associated with age-dependent loss of bone and muscle mass. It will identify GM compositions associated with age-dependent loss of bone and muscle mass using emerging genetic tools and faecal microbiota transplantation, design and test potential probiotic therapies, and evaluate the ability of GM analysis to predict fractures in elderly people.
Objective
The basic research problem: Gradual loss of bone and muscle mass with ageing leads to increased risk of fractures in the elderly population. There is a large medical need for new fracture preventive therapies with minimal side effects and novel biomarkers that improve the prediction of fracture risk. The aim of the proposed research is to test our hypothesis that the increased fracture risk in elderly people is caused by an age-dependent unhealthy change of the gut microbiota (GM) composition, resulting in reduced bone and muscle mass, and thereby increased fracture risk.
Methodology: We will identify age-dependent GM signatures that are causally associated with reduced bone and muscle mass and thereby increased fracture risk in elderly subjects. A major emphasis will be to determine causality of the GM using a variety of recently developed GM-related genetic instruments (for GM composition and function as well as for circulating metabolites) as exposures in 2-sample Mendelian randomization (MR). In addition, we will use faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to directly determine causality of age-dependent GM alterations for reductions in bone and muscle mass. Based on this information, we will design candidate probiotic treatments and test their efficacy in mouse osteoporosis models. Finally, we will determine the clinical usefulness of the identified GM signatures for fracture prediction in elderly subjects.
Research progress beyond the state of the art: We will employ three complementary methods, 2-sample MR, FMT, and treatment studies, to determine causality for GM on musculoskeletal parameters. For this research, we have established large well-characterized Nordic cohorts with metagenome sequence data and information on incident fractures available in 2023. Identification of a GM-signature with a robust effect on age-related bone and muscle loss will open-up completely new avenues to avoid fractures in elderly.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2022-ADG
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405 30 Goeteborg
Sweden
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