Gut bacteria are increasingly recognized as crucial contributors to overall health. In a recent study, researchers from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital revealed a potential breakthrough in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS), through bioengineered probiotics.
Published in the journal Nature, the study unveils a probiotic designed to effectively suppress autoimmunity in the brain, as demonstrated in animal studies. According to Francisco Quintana, PhD, a lead author of the study and a neurology professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, “Engineered probiotics could revolutionize the way we treat chronic diseases.” Unlike traditional medications with peak concentrations followed by a decline, living microbes could continually produce the necessary compounds for treating lifelong diseases like MS.
The engineered probiotic, producing lactate, was found to activate a biochemical pathway in dendritic cells, immune cells present in both the brain and gastrointestinal tract. This activation acts as a brake for the immune system, preventing it from attacking the body, a mechanism often dysfunctional in autoimmune diseases.
Quintana emphasized the potential of this therapy, stating, “By using synthetic biology to get probiotic bacteria to produce specific compounds relevant to diseases, we can take the benefits of probiotics and amplify them significantly.” In experiments with mice injected with the bioengineered bacteria, fewer symptoms of an MS-like disease were observed.
Quintana highlighted the standalone potential of using gut bacteria to suppress the immune system’s attacks on the body. However, he also suggested its combination with other autoimmune disease treatments. This approach could address various processes involved in diseases like MS, with the probiotic therapy slowing down or reducing damage, while complementary therapies focus on regeneration.
The connection between the gut and the brain may not be immediately apparent, but Quintana explained, “The microbiome fine-tunes our immune system.” For individuals with autoimmune diseases, where the immune system malfunctions, the therapy aims to prevent harmful lymphocytes from traveling from the gut to the brain.
Researchers are increasingly exploring ways to manipulate the gut microbiome for therapeutic purposes. In a 2021 study, Quintana and colleagues modified a gut yeast strain to treat inflammatory bowel syndrome symptoms. Dr. J. William Lindsey, director of the Division of Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, noted the study’s alignment with previous research on high-fiber diets influencing lactate production and immune response modulation.
While more than 20 FDA-approved drugs for MS target the immune system, Lindsey finds the Brigham and Women’s researchers’ findings to be a promising and potentially low-side-effect treatment direction.
