The human intestine is a mysterious universe teeming with trillions of bacteria and other microbes. Scientists have long known that having a healthy community of microbes in our gut is important for health, but past efforts to use probiotics, or good bacteria, to treat diseases has shown mixed results.
Now, Dr. Alain Stintzi and his team, in collaboration with Dr. Mack from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Dr. Figeys from the University of Ottawa, are conducting a clinical trial to test a new approach. Rather than give patients probiotics, the researchers are giving patients a customized fiber supplement that will act as a nutrient source for the beneficial microbes. The patients in the trial are children with inflammatory bowel disease, namely ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. The fiber supplement they receive has been precisely customized to each patient’s intestinal microbiome, with the aim of shifting the composition of their microbial community and boosting its production of beneficial metabolites.
Through this research, Dr. Stintzi will assess the microbiome’s role in disease and investigate the cause-and-effect relationship between intestinal microbes and inflammation. While the clinical trial is still a year away from yielding results, the hope is that it will lead to new therapeutic options for inflammatory bowel disease and improve the quality of life for Canadians.