Engineering armour for good gut bacteria against all-conquering antibiotics
Last edited Thu Apr 14, 2022, 11:17 AM - Edit history (2)
Researchers of synthetic biology based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have devised a system to protect the gut microbiome from the effects of antibiotics.
The new study, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, reports on the successful use in mice of a “live biotherapeutic” – a genetically engineered bacterium that produces an enzyme which breaks down antibiotics in the gut.
“This work shows that synthetic biology can be harnessed to create a new class of engineered therapeutics for reducing the adverse effects of antibiotics,” says MIT professor James Collins, the paper’s senior author.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/medicine/protect-gut-bacteria-antibiotics/
Eta this is a big deal because people who have to take a lot of antibiotics over time can develop life threatening growths of a bacteria called c. diff which can take over the gut biome and kill you. This new therapy prevents that.