Using Barnacle gloop could improve treatments for inflammatory bowel diseases

Scientists looking to provide relief to people with inflammatory bowel disease have turned to an unusual source of inspiration: barnacles.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, appears to occur when someone’s immune system attacks their intestines, making them inflamed. Its main symptoms are diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, weight loss, and bleeding from the intestines into the stool.

Anti-inflammatory medications, such as steroids, can relieve symptoms. But if bleeding continues, doctors may use small metal clips, passed into the intestine through the anus, to close the wounds caused by the infection. However, this carries the risk of infection and can aggravate wounds.

Looking for a gentler approach, scientists have previously genetically engineered bacteria to produce substances that help wounds heal. However, these microbes are usually removed from the intestine within two days They must be activated manually using medicationsHe says Pauline Ann At the Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology in China.

Now, An and his colleagues have genetically engineered a harmless strain of… Escherichia coli Bacteria produce a portion of a protein that promotes wound healing when they sense blood. Importantly, the bacteria also make certain types of “cement proteins,” which barnacles use to adhere to underwater surfaces. Based on tests conducted in the laboratory, the team hoped that these proteins would act as an anti-inflammatory seal against bleeding wounds, and they called them “living glue.”

To test this, the researchers used a toxic chemical to induce inflammatory bowel disease-like problems — including inflammation and intestinal wounds, resulting in weight loss — in mice. Each mouse then received either a single dose of a harmless, non-GMO strain Escherichia coligenetically modified Escherichia coli Or saline solution, all of which reach the digestive tract via a tube through the anus.

After ten days, the mice that received the engineered bacteria, which was still present in their intestines, regained most of the weight they had lost. Unlike the other two groups, their intestines resembled those of healthy mice. None of the mice showed signs of experiencing side effects.

The team also observed similar effects when mice were given pills containing the bacteria, suggesting that this approach could one day be administered orally to humans. “It’s definitely promising, and it’s a new approach,” he says. Shaggy Sebastian At the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. He adds that healing of intestinal wounds and infections in mice is very similar to what happens in humans, although tests in humans are needed.

The researchers now plan to test this approach in larger animals, including pigs, in part to determine how long the engineered bacteria can be retained inside the intestines, An says. But it could take up to 10 years before it reaches clinics, because a lot of testing is needed to show that it not only works, but also provides benefits beyond current treatments in humans, Sebastian says.