September 27, 2024
Keio University School of Medicine
RIKEN
JSR Corporation
A joint research group led by Professor Kenya Honda of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Keio University School of Medicine has identified 18 bacterial strains from the gut microbiota of healthy individuals that play a key role in suppressing Klebsiella and E. coli in the intestinal tract. In mouse experiments, it was confirmed that administering a mixture of these 18 strains has the effect of reducing Klebsiella and E. coli levels in the intestinal tract to less than 1/1000 of their original levels. Furthermore, they discovered that these 18 bacterial strains suppress the growth of Klebsiella by consuming more gluconic acid, its primary energy source.
These findings are expected to contribute to countermeasures against drug-resistant bacteria such as Klebsiella and E. coli, a growing global problem, and to the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease exacerbated by these bacteria.
The results of this research were published in the online edition of the international scientific journal Nature on September 19, 2024.
For the full press release, please see below.