WikiBiomeThe human microbiome encyclopediaRanked matches across titles, topics, categories, and article introductions.
The ability of microorganisms to survive and replicate in the presence of antimicrobial agents — antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antiparasitic drugs — at concentrations that would normally inhibit or kill them. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is designated by the W…
Arsenic is a metalloid and potent carcinogen (IARC Group 1) that ranks among the most widespread environmental toxicants affecting human health. An estimated 225 million people worldwide are chronically exposed through contaminated drinking water alone ghosh 2023 heavy …
An order of Gram-positive, obligate anaerobic bacteria within the class clostridia (phylum Firmicutes) that represents the single most functionally important taxonomic group in the human gut. Clostridiales encompasses the major butyrate-producing families (lachnospirace…
The process by which selection pressure from one agent — typically a heavy metal — simultaneously selects for resistance to a structurally unrelated agent such as an antibiotic, because the resistance determinants are genetically linked on the same mobile genetic elemen…
The co-occurrence of multiple diseases in the same individual at rates exceeding chance. Comorbidity patterns are a central puzzle in medicine -- why do IBD patients develop CVD? Why does PCOS cluster with T2D? Why do neurodegenerative diseases associate with depression…
A synthesis of how dietary heavy metal exposure varies across the human lifespan, highlighting that the same metals present different risks at different developmental stages due to changing absorption rates, detoxification capacity, dietary patterns, and organ vulnerabi…
Membrane-spanning protein complexes that actively export substrates from the bacterial cell, using energy from ATP hydrolysis or the proton motive force. In the context of metal-microbiome biology, efflux pumps serve a dual role that has profound clinical consequences: …
A genus of Gram-positive bacteria (primarily E. faecalis and E. faecium) that exemplifies the metal-antibiotic resistance co-selection crisis. Enterococci carry diverse metal tolerance genes for mercury, arsenic, copper, and cadmium on the same mobile genetic elements a…
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The primary intracellular iron storage protein, capable of sequestering up to 4,500 iron atoms in a single molecule as a mineralized ferric oxyhydroxide core. Ferritin is one of the most elegant solutions evolution has produced for the iron paradox: iron is essential fo…
Alphabetical definitions of specialist terms used throughout this wiki. Where a full concept page exists, the term links to it. --- AhR (aryl hydrocarbon receptor) -- A ligand-activated transcription factor that senses microbial metabolites (especially indoles from tryp…
An umbrella term for chronic relapsing-remitting inflammatory conditions of the gastrointestinal tract, principally crohns disease (CD; transmural, any GI segment) and ulcerative colitis (UC; mucosal, colon only). Approximately 6 million patients worldwide. IBD represen…
A metal ion that activates estrogen receptors and mimics the biological effects of estradiol. Metalloestrogens represent a distinct class of endocrine-disrupting compounds where the active agent is an inorganic metal rather than an organic xenoestrogen like BPA or phtha…
This knowledge-base record is being expanded from WikiBiome’s evidence graph.
A genus of Gram-positive, obligate anaerobic cocci within the Firmicutes phylum that exemplifies dual-nature microbiology — containing both keystone beneficial species and disease-associated pathobionts within the same genus. The genus spans multiple former taxonomic gr…
Lei et al. (2018) demonstrated that hydrogen sulfide promotes endometrial stromal cell proliferation via NF-kB activation. CBS and CSE (H2S-producing enzymes) are overexpressed in ectopic endometrium. NF-kB is also activated by nickel exposure in allergic contact mucosi…
Uremic toxins are metabolic waste products that accumulate in the blood when kidney function declines. A striking proportion of the most clinically significant uremic toxins are produced not by human metabolism but by the gut microbiome -- making the gut-kidney axis a c…