New strain: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum DR7
Another strain has been added to the list from which you can select, the L. plantarum DR7. This strain has been isolated from fresh cow’s milk in Malaysia (1). It has anti-inflammatory effects, shown both in preclinical and clinical studies (2-4), and stimulates AMPK activity (5). AMPK (adenosine 5′-monophosphate-activated protein kinase) is a cellular energy sensor and lowered AMPK activity is linked to insulin resistance, amongst others (6). In fact, one of the mechanisms of action of the well-known antidiabetic drug metformin is via activation of AMPK (7). Treatment with metformin has effects on many conditions, including reducing anxiety, which is thought to be linked to its effect on AMPK (8). Interestingly, a high quality RCT shows that this AMPK-stimulating L. plantarum DR7 strain indeed reduces stress and anxiety (4). In addition, this strain can inhibit respiratory pathogens in vitro and has been shown to be efficacious in reducing incidence and severity of upper respiratory tract infections in a RCT (4,9). Additional evidence and information about this strain can be found at the description of this ingredient in our system.
Rheumatoid arthritis linked to low levels of microbial butyrate
A very sophisticated study, published in Science Advances in February this year, has found that intestinal butyrate-metabolizing species play a role in rheumatoid arthritis (10). Here, the term “butyrate-metabolizing” refers to both butyrate production as well as butyrate consumption, and the investigators found that the number of butyrate-consuming species was much higher in treatment-naïve rheumatoid arthritis patients than in healthy controls. In fact, no less than 51 of 55 of the rheumatoid arthritis-associated butyrate metabolizers were butyrate consumers, 46 of which were enriched in rheumatoid arthritis patients. This suggests that in rheumatoid arthritis the level of microbial butyrate available to the host is substantially decreased. Next, the researchers validated the finding of the skewed butyrate producers/consumers ratio in an independent cohort. In this second cohort it was also shown that indeed both fecal and serum levels of butyrate were decreased in rheumatoid arthritis patients compared to healthy controls. Finally, the investigators showed that supplementation of butyrate in an animal model of arthritis led to a substantial lower arthritis incidence (11% vs. 85%) and severity compared to controls. Together, these findings provide strong evidence for a role of butyrate-metabolizing species in rheumatoid arthritis. This suggests that interventions with butyrate-producing species such as Anaerobutyricum soehngenii or Clostridium butyricum, both available via our platform, may be beneficial.
References:
- https://doi.org/10.1089/jmf.2007.0144
- https://doi.org/10.3920/BM2019.0200
- https://doi.org/10.3920/BM2018.0135
- https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2018-16103
- https://doi.org/10.3920/BM2019.0058
- https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpendo.1999.277.1.E1
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-017-4342-z
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-015-9677-x
- https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9030528
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm1511