"Nature" all the medicines you take are eaten by your gut bacteria!

The study found that certain types of intestinal bacteria can accumulate and consume drugs, thereby changing the function of the bacteria and possibly reducing the effectiveness of the drugs

The intestinal flora is an inseparable part of the human body

On September 8, 2021, researchers from the Toxicology Group of the Medical Research Council (MRC) of the University of Cambridge in the UK and the German European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) published a titled “Bioaccumulation of "Therapeutic drugs by human gut bacteria" article

The study found that certain types of intestinal bacteria can accumulate and consume drugs, thereby changing the function of the bacteria and possibly reducing the effectiveness of the drugs

In this study, researchers cultivated 25 common gut bacteria and studied how they interact with 15 oral drugs

The researchers conducted a total of 375 bacterial drug tests under a combination of 15 drugs and 25 bacteria

The study found that there are 70 interactions between bacteria and the drug being studied, 29 of which are new discoveries

Although early studies showed that bacteria can chemically modify drugs, when the researchers further analyzed these interactions, they were surprised to find that out of these 29 new interactions, 17 belonged to drug accumulation

Intestinal flora accumulation medicine

Researchers say that so far, biotransformation is considered to be the main way bacteria affect the availability of drugs

Specifically, it has been found that some antidepressant drugs or diabetes treatment drugs accumulate in bacteria

In order to understand the molecular basis of bioaccumulation in detail, the researchers carefully studied the widely used antidepressant duloxetine

The bioaccumulation of duloxetine changes the flora composition and host response

Finally, the researchers used the nematode model to find that the bioaccumulating bacteria can absorb enough specific drug molecules to change the therapeutic effect of the drug

The researchers emphasized that this research is still in its early stages

In the next step, researchers will advance this basic molecular study and study the relationship between individual gut bacteria and individual responses to drugs (such as antidepressants)