Science: Are noncommunicable diseases communicable?
B. Brett Finlay, professor at Michael Smith Laboratories and the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia, and colleagues discuss how some noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) could have a microbial component and thus might be communicable via the microbiota, writing, “[T]he microbiota could be a causal and transmissible element in certain diseases that have been traditionally classified as NCDs. … As the potential role of transmissible microbiota in NCDs becomes better defined, it will provide new opportunities to address these complex diseases” (1/17).