14 DAY TRIAL // Most people know that products like yogurt and cheese contain probiotics, which are good bacteria for the human body, but a new study found that one version of a very common lactic acid bacteria can also become a very efficient therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
Probiotics are the bacteria that help maintain the natural balance of organisms (microflora) in the intestines, and the normal human digestive tract contains about 400 types of these probiotics bacteria, which ensure a healthy digestive system by reducing the growth of harmful bacteria.
Lactobacillus acidophilus is the best known lactic acid bacteria and the largest groups of probiotics in the intestine, also found in yogurt and cheese.
A modified version of it seems to be an effective therapy against inflammatory bowel disease and even against colon cancer, another disease caused by inflammation.
Researchers from Northwestern Medicine deleted a gene in Lactobacillus acidophilus and fed it to mice with two forms of colitis.
Thirteen days of treatment later, the colon inflammation was almost eradicated in the mice, and the progression of their disease was blocked by 95%.
Mansour Mohamadzadeh, associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and lead investigator of the study, said that “this opens brand new avenues to treat various autoimmune diseases of the gut, including inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer, all which can be triggered by imbalanced inflammatory immune responses.”
In this case, the altered Lactobacillus acidophilus entered the gut and calmed down the overstimulated immune cells that were attacking the intestine.
The probiotic mobilized messenger immune cells, called dendritic cells, which in turn stimulated the production of regulatory T-cells that rebalanced intestinal and systemic inflammation.
“They essentially calm everything down and restore it to normal,” explained Mohamadzadeh.
The origin of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are unknown, but they affect over one million people in the United States and can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramping, weight loss and even gastrointestinal bleeding.
For now, treatments are not 100% effective and patients can relapse, so “such gene targeting in a probiotic bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus offers the possibility of a safe, drug-free treatment in the near future,” said Mohamadzadeh.
Mansour Mohamadzadeh also is a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, and along with his colleagues, is currently working on the effect of this new Lactobacillus acidophilus on colon cancer, the next step being a clinical trial.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.