Sodium butyrate, a compound naturally produced by the gut microbiome, has been identified as a negative regulator of antibody-based immunity, compromising protection against viral infection in mice.

Microbes live with us and among us. They occupy portions of our body and help us perform many daily bodily functions. Scientists call these microbes that live in our body the Human microbiome. In their latest research, scientists from the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, study the salivary microbiome in Indians.