IBD's bacteria cafeteria

The challenges of delivering the protease inhibitor elafin to the gut have stymied efforts to use this anti-inflammatory protein as a therapeutic for intestinal inflammation. Now, researchers in France have engineered food-grade lactic acid bacteria that secrete elafin.¹ Oral delivery of the engineered bacteria reduced inflammation and restored intestinal homeostasis in mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease.

ViThera Pharmaceuticals Inc. holds a license to the technology and thinks it will be ready to move the engineered bacteria into a Phase I trial by late 2014 in patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis (UC)...