Scientists at Northwestern Medicine have developed a groundbreaking engineered probiotic that can detect inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a condition affecting roughly three million Americans.
Their research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Current Challenges with IBD Monitoring
Monitoring IBD currently requires invasive procedures like colonoscopy and there’s no existing method to predict flare-ups. This poses a considerable challenge for both healthcare providers and patients.
Researchers led by Arthur Prindle, Ph.D., developed an engineered probiotic using E. coli Nissle. They modified it to sense calprotectin, a known biomarker for IBD.
“Our sensor piggybacks on the natural response to calprotectin, allowing us to produce a measured output that reports the presence of disease,” said Prindle.
The engineered probiotic was tested in mice with IBD and showed a real-time response to IBD markers as it navigated the gastrointestinal tract. These findings were further validated using in vitro human tissues.
Implications and Future Prospects
Non-Invasive Monitoring: This engineered probiotic offers a potentially less invasive and more cost-effective means to monitor IBD.
Predictive Measures: Real-time tracking can provide essential insights into the occurrence of flare-ups, enabling more timely interventions.
Technological Advancements: Future developments could see the engineered probiotic being tracked through human imaging technologies like MRI or ultrasound.
Therapeutic Applications: Prindle also raised the possibility of adding a therapeutic agent to the probiotic, so it could deliver medication when IBD activity is detected.
Conclusion
This engineered probiotic offers a revolutionary approach to managing a complex and chronic condition like IBD. It brings hope to millions of patients who rely on invasive and often inconvenient methods for diagnosis and monitoring.
Further studies and clinical trials will be instrumental in moving this promising technology from the laboratory to clinical practice.
If you care about gut health, please read studies about Gut Bacteria change found in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and findings of Scientists find new treatment for gut diseases.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about what postbiotics are and how they can improve our gut health, and results showing common dietary fiber may trigger inflammation in the gut and lungs.
The research findings can be found in PNAS.
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