New Strain of Bifidobacterium May Help Improve Metabolic and Mental Health | Sci.News (original) (raw)

The supplementation of a novel strain of Bifidobacterium longum, designated APC1472, in otherwise healthy overweight and obese individuals reduced their fasting blood glucose levels and normalized active levels of both ghrelin, a hormone that signals hunger, and the stress hormone cortisol.

Bifidobacterium longum APC1472 has promising potential to be developed as a valuable supplement in reducing specific markers of obesity and is poised to have significant relevance in conditions of heightened blood glucose, such as type 2 diabetes. Image credit: Ali et al., doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1333400.

“Obesity is one of the most pervasive, chronic diseases globally, in both developed and developing countries,” said University College Cork’s Dr. Harriet Schellekens and colleagues.

“The growing obesity epidemic is associated with increases in several comorbidities, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cancer.”

“Current available anti-obesity therapeutics are limited and associated with poor efficacy and adverse side effects.”

“The gut microbiota has emerged as a key component in the development of obesity and modulates the host’s physiology and metabolism, including energy harvest, storage and expenditure,” they noted.

“Preclinical and clinical evidence demonstrating the critical role of the gastrointestinal microbiota on host metabolism is steadily increasing.”

“Nonetheless, the exact mechanisms of how diet-induced changes in gut microbiota affect gut-brain signalling, including host metabolism, appetite regulation and brain health, are currently still lacking.”

In the new study, Dr. Schellekens and co-authors investigated Bifidobacterium longum APC1472 for its ability to ameliorate high-fat diet-induced obesity in mice and observed significant beneficial beneficial effects on adiposity and metabolism.

Based on these promising effects, they subsequently investigated whether it could improve obesity symptomatology in otherwise healthy overweight and obese individuals.

Bifidobacterium longum APC1472 supplementation reduced fasting glucose, cortisol awakening responses and increased active ghrelin in the participants.

“Our study shows that Bifidobacterium longum APC1472 has potential to be developed as a valuable probiotic supplement to reduce blood glucose, which is important in the development of conditions such as type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Schellekens said.

“This study is the first of its kind demonstrating the translation of a Bifidobacterium longum species from initial laboratory studies through pre-clinical studies to a human intervention study.”

“This study was a real team effort and delivers important translational evidence that probiotic supplementation can indeed be useful in the fight against obesity,” said University College Cork’s Professor John Cryan.

“Moreover, the findings reinforce the concept of the link between the gut microbiome, metabolic disease and mental health, which is a growing area of research.”

“The translational findings are solid and the modulation of cortisol awakening response, warrant further investigation of Bifidobacterium longum APC1472 and its potential use as a psychobiotic to improve mental health,” said University College Cork’s Professor Timothy Dinan.

The findings were published in the journal eBioMedicine.

_____

Harriët Schellekens et al. Bifidobacterium longum counters the effects of obesity: Partial successful translation from rodent to human. eBioMedicine, published online December 18, 2020; doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.103176