Design of probiotic bacteria to promote digestive and metabolic health

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The gut microbiota plays a key role in strengthening the gut barrier by stimulating protectiveresponses from the human intestine. Loss of epithelial barrier integrity, also known as a leakygut can lead to low-grade inflammation and is linked to the development of a number ofchronic diseases in humans, from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and metabolicsyndrome/type 2 diabetes to Parkinsons disease, chronic kidney disease and even certaincancers. Because of its far-reaching impact on these chronic diseases, there is an unmetneed to develop new strategies to counteract the detrimental systemic consequences of aleaky gut. In this project, we will design probiotic bacteria that will increase the levels of amicrobial product, called MDP, which targets a host protein called NOD2. We have shownthat NOD2 activation can fight against a leaky gut and promote healing of the intestinal liningafter injury. At the same time, NOD2 triggering can also improve metabolic health.Consequently, these probiotics could be used to protect and treat individuals with gut-relatedproblems as well as metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.