The benefits of probiotics have been confirmed
Scientists cured diabetes and extended people's lives with the help of bacteria
Belgian doctors helped four dozen volunteers to get rid of type 2 diabetes, lower cholesterol levels in the blood and improve liver function using cultures of bacteria from the genus Akkermansia. The results of their experiments are presented in the journal Nature Medicine (Depommier et al., Supplementation with Akkermansia muciniphila in overweight and obese human volunteers: a proof-of-concept exploratory study).
"In addition to improvements in metabolism, our volunteers also got rid of about two extra pounds and reduced hip girth by 2.5 centimeters. At the same time, it should be understood that our experiments are only the first successful step towards creating tools that would solve all these problems in clinical practice," notes Patrice Cani from the University of Leuven (in a press release A bacteria likely to reduce the cardiovascular risks of 1 in 2 people).
The human body contains about ten times more unicellular bacteria, fungi and other representatives of the microflora than its own cells. Recent observations show that microflora can not only affect metabolism and the likelihood of developing cancer and other diseases, but also human behavior.
For example, a year ago, American biologists discovered, experimenting on mice, that the development of autism may be due to the absence of Lactobasillus reuteri bacteria in the intestines of children and their mothers.
In addition, Russian biologists have repeatedly suggested that microflora can influence more complex behavioral reactions, affecting the level of hormones and signaling molecules of the nervous system. Relatively recently, scientists have found hints that some features of the structure and work of the brain in women may be related to the structure of their microflora.
Ten years ago, Kani and his colleagues discovered one of the first patterns of this kind by experimenting on mice. Scientists have noticed that in the intestines of healthy and thin people there are much more microbes from the genus Akkermansia than in the digestive system of diabetics and obese men and women.
Guided by this idea, biologists tested what would happen if they started feeding rodents with large amounts of these microbes. This experiment ended successfully: the mice not only got rid of obesity and diabetes, but also from many other problems due to metabolic failures.
Despite the fact that even such a pilot study on a small group of volunteers, which is described here, has not yet been conducted, dietary supplements with ackermancy have been produced and sold for a long time - VM.
Moreover, two years ago, scientists discovered that an even greater effect can be achieved if you do not use "live" microbes, but pasteurize them by placing the bacteria in a "warm bath" for half an hour. Mice fed on Akkermansia "soup" lived significantly longer than their relatives due to low cholesterol levels and delayed aging of blood vessels.
Transferring the results of these experiments to humans was complicated by the fact that until recently, scientists could not grow these bacteria outside the digestive system of rodents, which did not allow them to be used in clinical trials. Recently, Kani and his team solved this problem by creating a synthetic environment in which Akkermansia could grow.
Having achieved this success, the scientists gathered a group of four dozen volunteers suffering from obesity and type 2 diabetes, and invited them to take pills every day containing live or pasteurized cultures of bacteria of the species Akkermansia muciniphila.
About three months later, the doctors summed up the results of the experiment. It turned out that both dietary supplements significantly improved the health and well-being of the volunteers, despite the fact that scientists did not ask them to change their lifestyle or diet.
In particular, their insulin sensitivity increased by 30%, and the concentration of "bad" forms of cholesterol in the blood decreased by 8.6% compared to the participants of the control group. Both significantly improved the condition of their body and circulatory system, eliminating diabetes or prediabetic condition.
Interestingly, despite the fact that the weight of the participants in the experiment fell somewhat, the scientists did not record changes in their body mass index and in the proportion of subcutaneous fat. What is the reason for this, they cannot say yet, since they did not have the equipment to accurately measure the amount of fat in different organs and limbs.
In any case, as the Belgian researchers emphasize, these experiments have shown that dietary supplements based on Akkermansia muciniphila cultures have a beneficial effect on health. This opens the way for their application in practice, concludes Kani.
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