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Gastrointestinal diseases will be treated with bacteria
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Scientists from the Toulouse Centre for Pathophysiology have managed to create “good bacteria” that can protect the body from intestinal inflammation. This protection is provided by a human protein called elafin. This discovery may be useful for people suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis – diseases in which the large and small intestines are damaged by the host’s immune cells. These diseases are very dangerous, and there are suggestions that they are directly related to the risk of developing colon cancer.
In France alone, around 200,000 people suffer from chronic inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract. Patients complain of abdominal pain, diarrhea, sometimes with bleeding, as well as cracks and abscesses in the anal canal.
Currently, experts are studying the causes that lead to the development of chronic inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract; they consider genetic and environmental factors to be the main provocateurs.
The study's authors focused on a protein known for its anti-inflammatory action, elafin. Despite the fact that this protein is located directly in the intestines and fights off attacks from pathogenic microbes, it is absent in patients with digestive tract diseases.
Scientists believe that by transporting Elafin into the intestines, it is possible to restore balance in the gastrointestinal tract and normalize its functioning.
The protein efalin was introduced into Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus casei, two food bacteria found in dairy products, and its effects were tested in laboratory mice and human tissue samples. In both cases, the researchers noted significant improvements in the affected intestinal wall tissues.
The scientists say the findings could pave the way for the clinical use of efalin as a probiotic that protects the gut from inflammation and for treating inflammatory diseases.
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