Genetically modified bacteria will deliver the medicine exactly to the target
Genetically modified bacteria, which, in the presence of specific sugar, turn into a drug delivery mechanism, can become a new treatment for intestinal diseases, Solway Pharma reports with reference to British scientists (C).
Bacteria Bacteroides ovatus with altered genes will be able to deliver keratinocyte growth factor (PRK) directly to damaged intestinal cells, but this process is triggered only by the action of pentosan polysulfate, or xylan, a sugar that is rarely found in ordinary food.
This means that patients will be able to control the intake of the medicinal substance – for this they will need to drink the drug from lyophilized bacteria in capsules. And then, in order for the PRK to begin to be produced, it will be enough to take xylan, for example, in the form of a drink.
"For the first time, we have the opportunity to control the intake of therapeutic protein into a living organism by taking certain nutrients," says the head of the study, Simon Carding from the Food Research Institute in Norwich (UK).
About a year and a half later, after successful experiments on mice, scientists plan to start testing the "sugar bacteria" on volunteers.
Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, which include Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, affect about 0.5% of residents of developed countries. To date, these diseases are difficult to treat.
Their diseases are treated with parenteral administration of drugs based on monoclonal antibodies that suppress the production of tumor necrosis factor, such as infliximab, certolizumab and adalimumab.
In a report published on the pages of the journal "Gastrointestinal Tract" (Gut), the authors of the study note that the new method was effective - it reduced bleeding and accelerated healing in mice with colitis. Carding expressed confidence that "sugar bacteria" should also help with other intestinal diseases.
"We have strains of bacteria that produce other medicinal substances and can be effective in other inflammatory bowel diseases, as well as in colon cancer," he says. In the case of cancer, according to scientists, the bacteria will produce proteins that block the growth of blood vessels in the tumor.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru25.08.2009