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Is anyone else following a research clinical trial? Lack of gut Ruminococcaceae microbe prevents bile acid conversion leading to inflamation and sores in colon. Fascinating.

Quote: 'To get to this point, the team is now conducting a clinical trial to discover whether an acid supplement can help people with ulcerative colitis.'

Quote: “We hope it also leads to our being able to treat it with a naturally produced metabolite that’s already present in high amounts in a healthy gut.” – 

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/gut-microbes-could-be-key-to-treating-ulcerative-colitis

Reply posted for ic.

Hi Huggybear,

I think you may find these two articles interesting; there may be typos in the URL, as I didn't see a "paste" function here, but I am sure that you can figure it out:

1.  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fsn3.2035

Search for the sentence "Edible Walnuts can increase probiotic bacteria such as Ruminococcaceae"

2. https://www.sciencedaily.com/release.2019/08/190812130850.htm

The second article gives a ball park estimate based on extrapolation from lab rats, of about 25 walnuts per day for a human to have a therapeutic effect (maybe, who knows) for UC, which isn't realistic and for some people walnuts may cause irritation.

What I do (since I happen to like Walnuts anyway) is to eat about 3 to 4 walnuts (Costco sells Walnut halves by the bag, so it is actually 6 to 8 halves that I consume) a day, when I remember since it doesn't cause me irritation and like I said I like walnuts anyway. I think over time, the fact that I consistently eat walnuts may help. It's supposed to make one's hair and skin look better too and no I am not a walnut sales person nor own stock in Costco.

The cynic in me thinks that there is no incentive for researching non-pharmaceuticals for colitis treatment (no profit for big pharma) so progress will be very sloooooow.  Dr. Aida Habtezion, who was one of the Lead  Authors of the Stanford research paper linking missing gut microbes to UC is on leave of absence from Stanford and is now the Chief Medical Officer of Pfizer and in her case will probably not be researching this topic as much as previously. 

Nevertheless, my hope is in 10 or 20 years, something like the ursodeoxycholic acid(UDCA or "bear bile") mentioned in the Stanford Research paper might become a treatment for UC just as ulcers are not caused by stress but bacteria (H. pylori) and treated with an antibiotic. In the case of ulcers, mainstream medical establishment had to eat crow when they were eventually proved wrong. 

I have read some papers that say too much UDCA is bad(high risk of cancer, if memory serves) and too little of course is not therapeutic so figuring out the correct dosage is key and will take time.  UDCA is available on Amazon and various healthfood websites for like $20/month or something like that, so if it does become a treatment for UC and Crohns, big pharma will corner the market and raise the price. I am probably being too cynical.

If I did want to experiment with UDCA, I would take relatively small amounts 1 to 2 days a month so that there is some periodic input, but not so much that it would cause side effects.  I am not a doctor so don't follow random advice from the internet!  Please ask your doctor.

WIsh you the best

Reply posted for huggybear.

Apparently there's a certain kind of seaweed / kelp that may help increases the Ruminococaceae, Laminaria Japonica:


0 Seaweeds can be subdivided into three categories based on their pigmentation; Rhodophyta (red seaweed), Chlorophyta (green seaweed) and Phaeophyta (brown seaweed).⁹⁹ Differences in composition and structure of the polysaccharides present in these seaweeds are also evident. Brown seaweed is of particular interest as it possesses polysaccharides such as fucoidan, laminarin and alginate.¹⁰¹ Fucoidans comprise a class of fucose-rich sulfated polysaccharides often located in the cell walls of brown macroalgae. It is suggested that fucoidans with differing structures may impact the gut in a variety of ways. For example, a study carried out by Shang et al.,¹⁰² established that fucoidans isolated from Ascophyllum nodosum (FuA) and Laminaria japonica (FuL) had positive but slightly differing effects on the murine gut microbiota due to their structural differences. FuA has a type I back-bone structure whereas FuL has a type ^II structure. FuL markedly increased the levels of Ruminococcaceae while FuA enhanced Lactobacillus, Anaeroplasma and Thalassospira.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharina_japonica

(It says Laminaria Japonica is a synonym in the box on the right)

I haven't tried this yet, but I took a note of it a while back.  Apparently it's also good for the intestinal barrier (or at least the extract is):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6567143/

Reply posted for huggybear.

Quote: In this study the investigators will investigate if ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) may reduce inflammatory markers and improve quality of life (as assessed by validate survey) in those subjects with active antibiotic refractory or antibiotic dependent pouchitis.

From: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03724175

They're testing if drug ursodiol (ursodeoxycholic acid, UDCA) helps.

Reply posted for scbrac.

Thanks for posting. I read that a doctor is investigating the antiinflammatory effects of ursodeoxycholic acid oral supplements, currently used for treating gallstones. There are some articles on the web: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajpgi.00163.2019  - Ursodeoxycholic acid: a promising therapeutic target for inflammatory bowel diseases?
Did contacting her help in any way?

Reply posted for scbrac.

Great! Any luck with probiotics? I'm still hoping for an alternative to mesalamine.
I think the research will be going on for several years.
another interesting article on UC and probiotics https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3033537/   Visbiome (formerly VSL#3) has had some clinical success...

Reply posted for huggybear.

I just read about this study too.  Intereting.  I emailed th Doctor who is conduction the study.  Lets see what she says.  In th meantime, Iam looking for probiotics that contain Ruminococcaeae.  Does anyone have any suggestions as accordng to ths study, this coudl be the cause of UC (a lack of this bacteria that is normally producee by the liver). Thanks!