Nanoprobiotics for Remolding the Pro-inflammatory Microenvironment and Microbiome in the Treatment of Colitis

Nano Lett. 2023 Sep 27;23(18):8593-8601. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c02408. Epub 2023 Aug 25.

Abstract

Despite the great progress of current bacterially based biotherapeutics, their unsatisfying efficacy and underlying safety problems have limited their clinical application. Herein, inspired by probiotic Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917, probiotic-derived outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are found to serve as an effective therapeutic platform for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). To further enhance the therapeutic effect, the probiotic-derived OMV-encapsulating manganese dioxide nanozymes are constructed, named nanoprobiotics, which can adhere to inflamed colonic epithelium and eliminate intestinal excess reactive oxygen species in the murine IBD model. Moreover, combined with the anti-inflammatory medicine metformin, nanoprobiotics could further remold the pro-inflammatory microenvironment, improve the overall richness and diversity of the gut microbiota, and exhibit better therapeutic efficacy than commercial IBD chemotherapeutics. Importantly, insignificant overt systemic toxicity in this treatment was observed. By integrating cytokine storm calm with biotherapy, we develop a safe and effective bionanoplatform for the effective treatment of inflammation-mediated intestinal diseases.

Keywords: bacterium-based biotherapeutic efficacy; drug delivery; nanoprobiotics; outer membrane vesicles (OMVs); reactive oxygen species (ROS).