Enhancing cobalamin (vitamin B12) bioavailability in culturally appropriate foods in India

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B12 deficiency and insufficiency is thought to represent a hidden worldwide epidemic of nutrient malnutrition in both developed and developing countries. However, there is no doubt that in India the problem is on a vast scale, with estimates of around 1 billion people having low levels of the nutrient. This is a consequence not only of general malnutrition but also due to cultural practices associated with vegetarianism, since crops have very low levels of B12. In this application we aim to initiate a programme of work to address this nutrient-deficiency challenge, by combining expertise in the UK with that found in India. Specifically, we want to investigate if a newly constructed recombinant strain of E. coli can be used to provide large quantities of purified B12. To achieve this we will combine the metabolic engineering work at the University of Kent with the process engineering capability found at the ICT in Mumbai. The development of a suitable extraction procedure will allow us to interact with chemical companies such as Cipla, who have expressed an interest in taking this forward if a suitable high-yielding method is developed. This holds the potential for India to be able to produce all its own B12 rather than having to rely on expensive imports. In so doing, this will also address serious concerns about global nutrient supply, since currently around 90% of B12 is produced in China. We also plan to explore the use of alternative culturally acceptable enriched sources of B12 in the form of algae and higher plants. Many algae are known to be able to absorb the nutrient but only limited studies have been undertaken in order to assess whether the B12 found in algae is bioavailable to humans. Similarly, we have recently found that some higher plants, such as spring cress, are also able to absorb B12 when the plants are grown with the nutrient. However, as with algae, it is not known whether the nutrient is bioavailable. Therefore, apart from investigating ways to enhance B12 uptake into algae and higher plants, we will undertake volunteer trials to determine whether food prepared from these sources is able to alleviate B12 deficiency in the volunteers. This work will combine expertise in the UK in providing the growth conditions, the food technologists in Mumbai and the clinical expertise in Pune to address this problem. This represents an exciting series of experiments that holds the potential to provide transformative solutions to B12 deficiency in both developing developed countries.