Intestinal microorganisms eat drugs – Sciencfois

The intestinal microorganisms of a person reaching the number of molluscs and crustaceans are the same as the treasure of enzymes. Intestinal microorganisms directly modify and metabolize ingested foods, drugs and toxins. Intestinal microorganisms are primarily beneficial, but they also sometimes alter the bioavailability and effectiveness of drugs.

It has been shown that intestinal microbes impair the performance of levodopa (L-dopa or Eldopa), one of the most important drugs in Parkinson's disease.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School reported in an article published Thursday in the journal Science that "intestinal microbes are two-step intestinal microbial enzymes that break down dopamine drug for Parkinson's disease, then convert it. in meta-tyramine .I have identified the route. "In other words, intestinal microorganisms consume the most important treatment of Parkinson's disease and their effect is greatly reduced.

Globally, 10 million people suffer from Parkinson's disease and levodopa has been used as a major remedy for over 50 years. When dopamine is depleted in the brain of patients with Parkinson's disease, it causes movement disorders such as tremors, stiffness and slow movements.

Levodopa, a precursor of dopamine, is a commonly administered drug. Levodopa is absorbed in the small intestine, crosses the blood-brain barrier in the brain and converts it to dopamine in the brain. Dopamine supplementation alleviates the symptoms of Parkinson's disease but does not prevent the progression of Parkinson's disease.

"The drug may not reach the target in the body, it can become suddenly toxic, or it may help," says Emily P. Balskus, a professor at Maini Rekdal's Graduate Lab. It may be less. "

The researchers focused on levodopa, the first line of treatment for Parkinson's disease, as the first study of how intestinal microbes might interfere with the intended route of the drug to pbad through the body. Indeed, levodopa releases dopamine in the brain to relieve Parkinson's disease, but only about 1 to 5% actually reaches the brain.

The effect of treatment of Parkinson's disease was 1 ~ 5%

Since the introduction of levodopa in the late 1960s, researchers have learned that the body's enzymes can degrade visceral levodopa and prevent drugs from reaching the brain. The pharmaceutical industry has therefore introduced a new drug, carbidopa, to block the undesirable metabolism of levodopa. Taken together, the treatment seemed to work.

Nevertheless, many metabolites are not explained and are highly variable for each person. If levodopa is converted to dopamine outside the brain, it can cause severe gastrointestinal disturbances and side effects such as cardiac arrhythmia. If fewer drugs reach the brain, patients will likely exacerbate these side effects because they need to take more medicine.

Leekdal suspects the presence of microorganisms behind the disappearance of levodopa. Since previous studies have shown that antibiotics improve the function of levodopa in patients, scientists have hypothesized that bacteria could be the cause. But no one knows which bacteria play such a role, nor how and why they eat them.

The team used the human microbiome project to track bacterial DNA to determine which intestinal microbes were the killer. As a result of this project, only one variant, E. faecalis, has been found to eat all levodopa each time.

However, human enzymes convert levodopa to dopamine in the intestine and carbidopa is designed to stop this phenomenon. The researchers then wondered why carbidopa did not affect the enzyme Enterococcus faecalis.

But the cause may not be important. Researchers have already discovered molecules that can inhibit bacterial enzymes.

"This molecule does not kill bacteria and blocks the metabolism of unwanted bacteria," said Lekdal. This only applies to non-essential enzymes. "

The researchers hope that similar compounds could be a starting point for the development of new drugs to improve treatment with levodopa in patients with Parkinson's disease.

The role of intestinal microorganisms

The research team did not stop there. He then pushed to solve the second stage of microbial metabolism of levodopa. Finally, after Enterococcus faecalis switched from levodopa to dopamine, a second organism discovered a mechanism to convert dopamine into another compound, meta-tyramine.

A byproduct of meta-tyramine may contribute to some of the harmful side effects of levodopa. More research is needed, but why would bacteria eat brain-bound dopamine? What can intestinal microorganisms do? And does this chemistry affect our health?

All of this suggests that microbes in the intestines can contribute to dramatic changes, whether side effects or efficacy, in other patients taking levodopa, said Professor Valkscu .

It is important to note that microbial interference can not be limited to levotopa and Parkinson's disease. Research should be an important starting point for determining exactly who is in the body of a person, what he can do and how it affects his health, whether it is good or bad.