Probiotic Enhancement

About

Defective intestinal epithelial tight junction (TJ) barrier is a key pathogenic factor of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other inflammatory conditions of the gut. This defect allows increased intestinal penetration of bacterial antigens that induce inflammatory response. According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is currently estimated that up to 1.4 million people in the United States suffer from some form of IBD, making it one of the five most prevalent gastrointestinal disease burdens in the United States, and with no cure for the disease, these patients require lifelong care. This creates huge health care cost of more than $1.7 billion, which include 700,000 physician visits annually. There are no currently available therapeutic agents that target the intestinal TJ barrier specifically. There is a pressing market need for the development of new therapeutic agents that can target the intestinal TJ barrier. A researcher from the University of New Mexico has developed novel therapeutic agents, and methods for administering them, to target the intestinal TJ barrier and protect against intestinal inflammation. The combination of these agents produce a greater enhancement in intestinal epithelial barrier function than either strain alone, as well as showed that the combination was also associated with protection against the development of intestinal inflammation.