New UF Study Shows How Bile Acids in Breast Milk Affect Newborn Gut Health

A University of Florida researcher has compiled the first-ever study that identifies the role of breast milk bile acids — a breakthrough that could help lessen the incidence of the deadly norovirus in infants, which claims the lives of at least 50,000 children every year.

Because newborns don’t have an established gut microbiome — the collection of friendly bacteria that helps humans digest nutrients and respond to intestinal pathogens — they are especially susceptible to the norovirus, which is one of the leading causes of newborn deaths worldwide.

“We knew microbiota protected adult mice from norovirus infection and we knew newborns were vulnerable to severe norovirus disease,” said Stephanie Karst, Ph.D., a member of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute and a professor in the UF College of Medicine, who led a recent mouse-model study on norovirus that was published on Aug. 29 in Cell Host & Microbe. “So, that led us to ask the question: Are newborns vulnerable to norovirus because their gut microbiota is immature?”

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