The cure for a type of cancer might just be in everybody’s gut.
UF researchers have found that a genetically modified version of the bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus reduces inflammation or growths that can result in colon cancer in mice.
The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The bacteria is naturally produced in the human gut and can also be found in certain yogurts and cheese, according to the study’s principal investigator Mansour Mohamadzadeh, a professor in the UF College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Medicine.
The bacterium works by controlling bad inflammation in intestinal cells.
The bacterium’s surface proteins can work with the immune system to either reduce or increase inflammation. It’s the inflammation in the large intestine that can lead to colon cancer and other inflammatory bowel diseases.
But after four treatments of the bacterium, Mohamadzadeh said, the mice’s cancerous growths were significantly decreased.
Because of the bacterium’s natural convenience, it could be a low-cost treatment option to be coupled with other methods, he said.
Colon and rectal cancers are the fourth most common type of cancer in both men and women and will account for 51,690 deaths in the U.S. this year, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Mohamadzadeh hopes that enough funds can be raised to begin clinical trials in humans to test the bacteria’s effect on colon cancer.
“We hope it would work for everybody,” he said.
