probiotic bacteria tagged posts

Helping ‘Good’ Gut Bacteria and Clearing out the ‘Bad’ – all in one treatment

An illustration of several rod-shaped bacteria.
Probiotic bacteria, like those illustrated here, could one day be delivered to the body on spherical microgels.
Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.com

Probiotics can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome or restore populations of “good bacteria” after a heavy course of antibiotics. But now, they could also be used as an effective treatment strategy for certain intestinal diseases, such as Crohn’s disease. Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed a microgel delivery system for probiotics that keeps “good” bacteria safe while actively clearing out “bad” ones. In mice, the system treated intestinal inflammation without side effects.

In the digestive system, there’s a delicate balance of bacterial populations...

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