Gut bacterium becomes obesity treatment

Tuesday November 29th, 2016

Belgian researchers have begun clinical trials using pasteurised bacteria as a treatment for diabetes and obesity, it was announced last night.

The trial at the University of Louvain involves the bacterium Akkermansia, which is found in the human gut.

The researchers have spent ten years studying it amid evidence that it might aid metabolic health.

They say that early clinical trials have shown their treatment is safe. So far they have not got evidence that beneficial effects found in mice studies are likely in their patients.

They have also identified a protein that may play a key role in the bacteria's beneficial effects.

The treatment involves pasteurisation of the bacteria at a temperature of 70C.

The scientists, Patrice Cani and Professor Willem de Vos, say this left the bacteria inactive but live - and seemed to double its effectiveness. This led them to a protein on the outer surface - Amuc_1100 - that survived pasteurisation and seemed to be linked to the benefits of the treatment.

Details of the work were published last night in Nature Medicine.

A university spokesman said: "The discovery of this protein is also really promising as it also has a positive impact on our immune system: it blocks the passage of toxins into the blood, reinforces the immune defences of the intestine, and abolished the leaky gut syndrome for instance.

"Thus, the Amuc_1100* protein provides hope for the treatment of other diseases such as inflammation of the intestine that appears for instance in cases of stress, alcoholism, liver diseases and cancer."

Nature Medicine 28 November 2016

Tags: Diabetes | Diet & Food | Europe

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