Human Gut Microbe That Treats Multiple Sclerosis Discovered

Autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis can now be treated with a human gut microbe called Prevotella histicola. This has been discovered by the searchers from Mayo Clinic along with colleagues at the University of Iowa.

While //probiotics have been used for millennia, there are little data showing how a bacterium can provide benefit against a disease outside the gut. This research team tested gut microbial samples from patients on a mouse model of MS.

Culturing of Human Gut Microbes Raises Hopes for Using Bugs as Drugs
Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have grown and studied the genome of more than 130 bacteria from the human intestine.

‘Prevotella histicola, a gut microbe treats autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis effectively.’

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The findings appear in Cell Reports. Of three bacterial strains, they discovered that one microbe, Prevotella histicola, effectively suppressed immune disease in the preclinical model of MS.

"This is an early discovery but an avenue that bears further study," says Joseph Murray, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and senior author of the article.

"If we can use the microbes already in the human body to treat human disease beyond the gut itself, we may be onto a new era of medicine. We are talking about bugs as drugs."

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A new study revealed how germ-free mice that got gut bacteria from overweight humans tended to accumulate more fat than those who were given the bacteria from the guts of lean humans.

Dr. Murray coined the term "brug" to refer to this approach.

The researchers found that P. histicola, which is cultured from the human intestine, caused a decrease in two types of pro-inflammatory cells, while increasing families of cells that fight disease: T-cells, dendritic cells and a type of macrophage.

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In the dark, moist microbial forest of the intestine, many species of microorganisms interact with each other and with the cells of the host animal to get the resources they need to survive and thrive.

The team concludes that, in the future, this type of gut microbe may play a role in treating MS, which is caused by an attack by the immune system on the myelin sheath, a natural insulation that covers the nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

"Our work is a classic example of a bedside to bench and potentially back to bedside study. Recent MS microbiome studies have shown the lack of Prevotella genus in patients with the disease and an increase when patients were treated with disease-modifying drugs," says Ashutosh Mangalam, Ph.D., first author and assistant professor of pathology at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and principal investigator of the study.

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"And it's not just for MS, because this may have a similar modulating effect on other nervous system and autoimmune diseases."

Source-Eurekalert