(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Bacteria that produce compounds to reduce
inflammation and strengthen host defenses could be used to treat inflammatory
bowel disease (IBD). Such probiotic microbes could be the most successful
treatment for IBD to date.
IBD is inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract that causes severe abdominal
pain and watery and bloody diarrhea. It is an emerging disease that affects 20
out of 100,000 genetically susceptible people in Europe and North America. The
most common manifestations of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
While the exact causes are unclear, IBD is known to be the result of an
overactive immune response that is linked to an imbalance of the normal types of
bacteria found in the gut.
Recent studies have identified butyric acid as a potential therapeutic agent for
IBD. Some gut bacteria produce butyric acid naturally in the intestines, but in
IBD patients some of these strains are heavily depleted. Trials in mice have
shown that injecting one such strain, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, into the
digestive tract is effective at restoring normal levels of gut bacteria and
treating the symptoms of IBD. In addition, butyrate-producing strains, such as
Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum, have been shown to exert similar effects.
Butyric acid is a well-known anti-inflammatory, able to strengthen intestinal
wall cells, making it an ideal therapeutic agent against IBD. In addition to
butyric acid, researchers believe that strains such as F. prausnitzii and
B.pullicaecorum secrete other anti-inflammatory compounds that may enhance the
therapeutic effect.
Professor Filip Van Immerseel, a medical microbiologist from Ghent University in
Belgium, was quoted as saying,"Conventional drug therapy has limited
effectiveness and considerable side effects. Probiotics are live bacterial
supplements or food ingredients, which when taken in sufficient numbers confer
health benefits to the host."
Previous trials of probiotics to treat IBD using mainly lactic acid bacteria
have given mixed results.
"Now we realise that lactic acid is used for growth by a certain population of
bacteria that produce butyric acid, which could explain why some of the older
studies had a positive outcome,” Van Immerseel said. “Recent trials focusing on
butyric acid-producing bacterial strains have been extremely promising and could
lead to a new treatment for IBD."
Developing an effective probiotic treatment for IBD will not be easy, however.
"As butyric acid-producing bacteria are naturally depleted in IBD patients,” Van
Immerseel said, “we will need to identify strains that are able to colonize the
gut without being outcompeted. Many bacterial species produce butyric acid and
possibly other anti-inflammatory molecules so it's a case of finding which is
the most robust under these conditions."
SOURCE: Journal of Medical Microbiology, February, 2010
