Nature finds for the first time that common drugs accumulate in gut bacteria

As we all know, bacteria can chemically change certain drugs.

This may directly change the effectiveness of the drug, because accumulation may reduce the availability of the drug to the body, or it may indirectly change the function and composition of the bacteria, because it may cause side effects

The human intestine naturally contains hundreds of different types of bacterial communities.

In this study, researchers cultivated 25 common gut bacteria and studied how they interact with 15 oral drugs

The researchers tested how each of these 15 drugs interacted with selected bacterial strains-a total of 375 bacterial-drug tests were performed

They discovered 70 interactions between bacteria and the drug being studied, 29 of which have not been reported before

Although early studies have shown that bacteria can chemically change drugs, when scientists further studied these interactions, they found that out of 29 new interactions, 17 drugs accumulated inside the bacteria without modification

Dr.

"This may be a very personal difference between individuals, depending on the composition of their intestinal flora

Drugs that accumulate in bacteria include the antidepressant duloxetine and the antidiabetic drug rosiglitazone

They also found that the bioaccumulation of drugs changes the metabolism of accumulating bacteria

Researchers cultivated several kinds of bacteria together into a small community and found that the antidepressant duloxetine greatly changed the balance of bacterial species

The researchers further tested this effect using a nematode commonly used to study intestinal bacteria, Caenorhabditis elegans

The co-leader of the study, Dr.

"This requires us to start treating the microbiome as one of our organs

Dr.

The researchers warned that the results of the study are only for bacteria grown in the laboratory, and more research is needed to understand how the drug accumulation of intestinal bacteria manifests in the human body
.

The research started as a collaborative project of Heidelberg EMBL.
After Kieran Patil moved to Cambridge, his team completed the research
.
Its researchers come from the Typas, Bork, Zimmermann, Hennig, Schultz, Beck and Savitski teams of EMBL, as well as the EMBL Heidelberg core facilities for genomics, proteomics and metabolomics
.

"This study emphasizes the importance of the microbiome in drug delivery, effectiveness, and safety
.
We still have a lot of knowledge about the microbiome.
It is clear that further work is needed to understand the important molecular aspects involved.
May have a positive impact on the individual’s response to a range of commonly used drugs
.
"

(Biocom)

Original search:

DOI

10.
1038 / s41586-021-03891-8

Bioaccumulation of therapeutic drugs by human gut bacteria