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CHICAGO, July 13 (Xinhua) – Researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis and the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have developed a new type therapeutic food, a mixture of nutrients from chickpea and soybeans, bananas and peanuts, to repair the intestinal microbiomes of malnourished children.
The therapeutic food proved to be superior to standard treatment in a first clinical trial conducted in Bangladesh.
The clinical trial included 63 Bangladeshi children aged 12 to 18 months, suffering from moderate acute malnutrition, which means that they were sick but not about to die.
Children were randomly badigned to one of four treatment groups. Children in three of the groups each received one of three newly developed therapeutic foods, while those in the fourth group received a standard therapeutic food that was not designed based on its effects on the microbiome. intestinal.
All foods for testing were produced locally by the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research. Children were brought twice a day to a nutrition rehabilitation center, where therapeutic foods were administered by their mother under the supervision of a health care worker.
One of the therapeutic foods stood out even in this relatively short one month trial. Measuring 1,300 blood proteins, including those intimately linked to bone growth, brain development, immune function, and metabolism of various tissues, this food prototype has led to a marked shift towards a healthy state of health. to that observed in the other three groups. children.
At the end of the study, the researchers also found that, unlike the other three treatment groups, intestinal microbial communities residing in the intestines of children receiving this main therapeutic food had been reconfigured and more closely resembled the microbial communities found in the age. paired healthy children living in the same place.
Existing therapeutic foods have been developed to increase the amount of essential nutrients consumed by children. Malnourished children who receive these foods are less likely to die, but other consequences of malnutrition have generally not responded to treatment, including stunting, impaired immunity, and decreased cognitive function.
According to the World Health Organization, child malnutrition is a major global health problem, affecting 150 million children under 5 years of age.
The results of the research were published Friday in the journal Science.
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