Hundreds of different kinds of microorganisms live in your gut, laugh and love. In the future, one of them may have a new function: microscopic in-house pharmacist.
A new study published on February 18 exist Natural Biotechnology It shows how intestinal bacteria are instructed to produce and release proteins in the lower gastrointestinal tract, eliminating the major obstacles to delivering the drug to that part of the body.
Oral medications are the most common and practical means of drug management, but the stomach cannot be unscathed. This is great when it comes to things like foodborne pathogens, but gut-centric therapy is regularly discontinued and rinsed off.
In an unprecedented solution, biologist Bryan Hsu’s team designed a bacterial virus called bacteriophage to infect and reprogram bacterial cells to produce and release continuous flow Protein-based drugs.
HSU’s research team collaborated with immunologist Liwu Li to show that this approach can be used to treat chronic diseases.
Embrace your inner spider alien
Phages (short phages) are viruses that naturally infect bacteria. Phages are harder to sort than bacteria, so much less, but we do know how they attack bacteria.
After being attached to bacterial cells, the phage injects its own DNA and reprograms the cells to make it produce more phages – drugs that the cells themselves destroy. When the bacterial cell finally yields, it explodes into new phages in a process called lysis. Millions of these events simultaneously generate a continuous supply of targeted proteins in the lower intestine.
Even if Phages behave (looks like) like Spider Aliens, they are regular players on the gut microbiology team. In fact, their ubiquity has prompted HSU to explore the reasons why they introduce and provide therapeutic proteins using them.
Zachary Baker, a doctoral student in the HSU lab, designed special phages that inject some additional genetic material into bacterial cells.
In addition to conducting a series of new phages, the instruction also prompts cells to produce proteins that can carry themselves into the lower intestine.
Engineered protein reduces inflammation, obesity in mice
To demonstrate their technology, Baker and research assistant professor Zheng Zhang successfully applied these engineered phages to address symptoms associated with two separate diseases in mice:
- Reduce inflammation By releasing proteins that inhibit enzymes associated with inflammatory bowel disease.
- Reduce obesity go through Releases a protein that induces satiety in mice on high-fat diets, which are usually associated with an increased risk of obesity.
Through these results, HSU’s team demonstrated a proof of concept of a new approach to drug delivery. They are currently exploring the business potential of this innovation through the National Science Foundation I-Corps program and the Fralin Commercialization Scholarship.
But there are at least two parts of the drug delivery problem. The next challenge for HSU is to absorb the absorbed drugs from the intestine into a systemic cycle.
“Like we’re Amazon. We put things there, put them on the door.” “Now we need to figure out how to ring the doorbell.”
This work was funded by the National Institute of Medicine, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Lay Nam Chang Dean Discovery Fund awarded by Virginia Tech.
Original study doi: 10.1038/s41587-025-02570-7
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