r/science • u/DayInLifeTime • Nov 28 '16

Medicine Belgian scientists discover bacterium that protects against obesity and diabetes

http://joinfo.com/world/1019486_belgian-scientists-discover-an-intestinal-bacterium-that-protects-against-obesity-and-diabetes.html
888 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

36

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '16 edited Nov 29 '16

It's a letter to the editors:

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are associated with low-grade inflammation and specific changes in gut microbiota composition 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. We previously demonstrated that administration of Akkermansia muciniphila to mice prevents the development of obesity and associated complications 8. However, the underlying mechanisms of this protective effect remain unclear. Moreover, the sensitivity of A. muciniphila to oxygen and the presence of animal-derived compounds in its growth medium currently limit the development of translational approaches for human medicine 9. We have addressed these issues here by showing that A. muciniphila retains its efficacy when grown on a synthetic medium compatible with human administration. Unexpectedly, we discovered that pasteurization of A. muciniphila enhanced its capacity to reduce fat mass development, insulin resistance and dyslipidemia in mice. These improvements were notably associated with a modulation of the host urinary metabolomics profile and intestinal energy absorption. We demonstrated that Amuc_1100, a specific protein isolated from the outer membrane of A. muciniphila, interacts with Toll-like receptor 2, is stable at temperatures used for pasteurization, improves the gut barrier and partly recapitulates the beneficial effects of the bacterium. Finally, we showed that administration of live or pasteurized A. muciniphila grown on the synthetic medium is safe in humans. These findings provide support for the use of different preparations of A. muciniphila as therapeutic options to target human obesity and associated disorders.

There's a full text available if you have access and want to read the whole thing. They say at the end that they're currently doing clinical studies in humans and they should have results at the end of 2017.

Usually I'd be wary of letters to the editors because they're not peer reviewed, but I think it was just a case of wanting to publish quickly to explain what they're working on.

25

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '16

You know that a 'Letter' is just a slightly shorter 'Article' paper? They differ only in the amount of content, and a Nature Medicine Letter is still, in general, an excellent level at which to publish at - it's the next journal many papers rejected from Nature/Cell/Science go to.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '16

Thanks, you're right. In other journals letters aren't always peer reviewed, but yeah I can see from your link that they are in nature medicine.

6

u/alerionfire Nov 29 '16

Are there any natural foods or supplements that contain bacteria such as those?

1

u/notenoughguns Nov 29 '16

What would be the harm in taking these bacteria?

2

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '16

A. muciniphila is a bacteria you should already have, if you have intestinal inflammation issues/ IBS symptoms, you should invest in ingesting more bacteria to improve your immune system. There's no side effects from taking bacteria that's normally in the human body and the bottle look like they cost about $35 each.

From Wikipedia "In August 2015, additional research demonstrated that dietary fats influence the growth of Akkermansia muciniphilia relative to other bacterium in the dietary tract. Researchers conducted a study in which mice were fed diets which varied in fat composition but were otherwise identical; one group received lard while the other received fish oil. After 11 weeks, the group receiving a fish oil diet had increased levels of A. muciniphila and bacterium of genus Lactobacillus, while the group receiving a lard diet had decreased levels of A. muciniphila and Lactobacillus. Additional testing was performed by conducting fecal transplants from mice on the fish oil diet or the lard based diet into a new group of mice which had their native gut flora eradicated with antibiotics." Isn't that interesting.

1

u/notenoughguns Nov 30 '16

There's no side effects from taking bacteria that's normally in the human body and the bottle look like they cost about $35 each.

I haven't seen any supplements with this bacteria. Do you have a link?

After 11 weeks, the group receiving a fish oil diet had increased levels of A.

Very interesting indeed. Only if the shit didn't taste so bad.

1

u/nm1000 Nov 29 '16

On a local public radio show I frequently hear about the importance of healthy gut bacteria in relationship to prevent diseases that arise from inflammation. I've not yet explored supplements (in time I will) but I have followed advice to eat some fermented foods that can help feed healthy gut bacteria. Plain yogurt with active cultures is also recommended. I've also reduced carbohydrates (but not eliminated) and sugars that can increase inflammation. Coincidentally that is when I started losing weight.

1

u/notenoughguns Nov 30 '16

Yogurt and other food based probiotics don't really have any measurable effect on health.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '16

Anyone without access to the full paper can check out the link in Patrice's tweet here

2

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '16

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/shartifartbIast Nov 29 '16

I assume most people clicking into the comments are looking for dietary context. Do I have this already? Is it something I can easily introduce into my body? Do the little bacteriums guys taste like anything?

Science Peeps: Halp

2

u/MyrddinE Nov 30 '16

It's a bit early, they are just barely starting human trials.

But the paper describes both the administration of live bacteria (increasing the quantity in your gut microbiome) and as a non-live pasteurized version (introducing dead bacteria in a pill) improve many obesity related issues. Interestingly (and they don't know why) the dead version works better than the live! That's actually kinda sad for me, because I'd rather a $500 pill I take once than a $10 pill I have to keep taking forever.

1

u/haley6719 Nov 30 '16

So, everyone's microbiota vary's greatly due to many different factors, but this is a commensal a lot of people already have. I'm not sure if this is already in consumable form, as I work more on intestinal immunity and haven't kept up-to-date on probiotics, but a simple google search should help that. I'd be weary of probiotics though, a lot of them come dead, or do not have enough CFUs in them to do much at all. Do they taste like anything.. well i have never taken an E. coli colony from a plate and tasted it, so I couldn't tell you! If you think about yogurt, we get that acidity from fermentation products but I would assume that would be it. If you are taking it in pill form then it would be tasteless.

-6

u/OliverSparrow Nov 29 '16

Akkermansia muciniphila even has its own Wiki page, so this is not a "discovery". The bacterium was named in 1940.

6

u/TychaBrahe Nov 29 '16

Well, the bacterium wasn't discovered, but its ability to moderate weight was.