Some gut bacteria could make medicines less effective and less likely to help make people better, researchers said this week.
The common gut bacteria, which work to aid digestion, have the ability to chemically process and break down the compounds of certain medications that target proteins located on the thin wall that surrounds human cells, they found.
The proteins – large molecules that play many important roles in the body – help to relay information and are known GPCRs, or G protein-coupled receptors.
Drugs that influence these proteins include hundreds of medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat prostate cancer, type 2 diabetes, depression, and other common conditions.
“Understanding how GPCR-targeted drugs interact with human gut microbiota is critical for advancing personalized medicine initiatives,” Dr. Qihao Wu, an assistant professor in the Pitt School of Pharmacy, said in a statement. “This research could help open up new avenues for drug design and therapeutic optimization to ensure that treatments work better and safer for every individual.”
Wu was the lead author of a study that was published in the journal Nature Chemistry by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Yale University.
The study’s authors lab tested which gut bacteria metabolizes drugs, and built a synthetic microbial community: a synthetic environment made up of 30 common bacterial strains found in the human gut. They added 127 drugs that target GPCRs to tubes containing the bacteria and measured if they were then chemically transformed.
They found that the bacteria metabolized 30 of the tested drugs, including 12 that were greatly depleted.
Focusing on one particular drug commonly used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, they found that a particular strain of bacteria known as Morganella morganii, inactivated it and transformed it into a range of different compounds.
They noted that the effectiveness of drugs differs from person to person, and is influenced by factors such as age, diet and genetics.
Wu said more research is necessary to understand possible impacts in people and that patients should not stop taking or change their medication without a consultation with their provider.
Next, the researchers hope to better understand the metabolic pathway that is the cause of these modifications. That could help to identify strategies for improving therapeutic efficacy and enhancing food and drug safety.
“Another potential application of this pipeline is investigating interactions between gut bacteria and compounds found in food,” said Wu. “For example, we identified a couple of phytochemicals in corn that may affect gut barrier function. Notably, we observed that the gut microbiome could potentially protect us from these phytochemicals by detoxifying them.”
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