Project description
Antimicrobial peptides as a treatment for obesity
Obesity is associated with excessive body fat and can have various adverse effects on people’s health. The gut microbiota plays a key role in energy production from food, and alterations in its composition have been linked to metabolic deregulation and obesity. The EU-funded BIOMA project proposes to develop a novel strategy against obesity that relies on bacteriocins, antimicrobial peptides produced by certain bacteria against target species. Researchers will investigate the impact of specific bacteriocins on gut microbial populations in vitro and on weight loss in a mouse model in vivo. Efforts to incorporate these molecules into foods and pharmabiotics may lead to a new approach to obesity management.
Objective
Alterations of the gut microbiota are implicated as a contributory factor in obesity-related metabolic dysregulation. Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria of many genera, including several probiotic strains. These peptides are often very specific and can kill target species without causing collateral damage to host bacterial populations. Since bacteriocins are gaining credibility as precise modulators of the human microbiome, bacteriocin-producer strains are an interesting strategy to address obesity prevention and/or treatment. However, rigorous experimental methods are required to assess this. The aim of BIOMA is to study the impact of a set of different bacteriocin-producing strains with probiotic traits, on the composition of the gut microbiota and on metabolic abnormalities in obesity, through the use of wild type strains and derived mutants that no longer produce the bacteriocins. The proposal involves two complementary approaches: 1) In vitro fermentation systems that simulates the anaerobic and dynamic environment of the distal colon will be used to assess the effect of bacteriocins production on taxonomic profiles and diversity of gut microbial populations. 2) In vivo male and female murine models will be used to study changes in microbiota and whether these changes are associated with a reduction in body weight gain and an improvement in inflammatory and metabolic profiles. A secondment at Artugen (interface of academia and industry) will be a first step to face the challenging incorporation of bacteriocin-producing probiotics into foods and pharmabiotics. From a clinical perspective, the under-utilization of bacteriocins can be ascribed to a lack of awareness of what they can achieve. The outcome of BIOMA will impact clinical practice in the foreseeable future, providing an overview of the potential of bacteriocins as microbiota modulators and as a possible strategy in the prevention/management of obesity and metabolic disorders.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
T12 YN60 Cork
Ireland