In a human trial, researchers have shown that taking a bacterial nutritional supplement improves metabolic syndrome symptoms.
Building on a prior study in mice, researchers from Belgium were able to show the effectiveness of daily oral supplementation of Akkermansia muciniphila bacteria, either live or pasteurized, in 32 overweight and/or obese, insulin-resistant human volunteers.
After three months, people who took A. muciniphila showed reduced markers of inflammation in the liver, slight reductions in body weight, fat mass, and hip circumference and lower cholesterol levels. In addition, the participants’ overall gut microbiome structure was unaffected, wrote Patrice Cani, a researcher at the Louvain Drug Research Institute at the University of Louvain, Belgium. The intervention “was safe and well tolerated,” Cani wrote. In contrast, markers of metabolic health deteriorated in the placebo group.
Professor Cani noted that the growing worldwide population of people who are overweight and obese has created an urgent need for a therapeutic solution to metabolic disorders. He added that research into factors affecting the gut microbiome may be a way forward.
“More and more evidence shows that the trillions of bacteria housed in our gastro-intestinal tract influence host metabolism,” Cani wrote in an online summary.
A. muciniphila is a bacterium that occurs naturally in the mucus layer of the gut.
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