New Therapeutic Platform for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) associated with the balance of microbes living in the human gut can be treated by restoring the right balance. Many probiotics like living yeasts or bacteria that are currently on the market have been optimized through evolution in the context of a healthy gut.

Probiotics need to serve many functions including an ability to turn off inflammation, reverse damage and restore the gut microbiome in treating complex diseases such as IBD.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital developed a "designer" probiotic, a thoughtfully engineered yeast that can induce multiple effects for treating IBD..

"We've taken yeast -- the very yeast that's used to make beer -- and we've given it the ability to sense inflammation and secrete an anti-inflammatory molecule," said corresponding author Francisco Quintana, PhD, an investigator in the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at the Brigham.

The new platform is called 'Y-bots' (yeast robots) for developing therapeutics that can treat diseases of the gut tissue. The findings of the study are published in Nature Medicine.

Previous research illuminates the connection between the gut and diseases that affect the brain, suggesting potential applications for engineering probiotics beyond IBD.

Researchers developed a new probiotic using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a species of yeast used in winemaking, baking and brewing.

Using the gene editing technology CRISPR/Cas9, they introduced genetic elements that can sense inflammation and respond to it by secreting an enzyme that can degrade a key molecule involved in inflammation.

The engineered yeast successfully suppressed intestinal inflammation, reduced fibrosis and restored a balanced gut microbiome in mice.

Researchers need to conduct safety studies to use this new therapeutic platform for IBD and other diseases in humans. They also plan to further refine and test the engineered yeast to see if they can speed up tissue repair.

The team plans to investigate the use of engineered probiotics beyond IBD for treating a common side effect of cancer immunotherapy, colitis and other complex diseases.



Source-Medindia