A PCR TEST... TO DETECT

AN ANTI-INFLAMMATORY

PROTEIN

people in France are affected by

Crohn's disease, which causes chronic

inflammation of the digestive tract

(5)

.

Numerous studies suggest that microbiota

play a dominant role in the onset of the

disease, because some patients with Crohn's

disease have considerably reduced gut

microbiota diversity.

Doctor Paul McLellan, junior doctor of

gastroenterology at Saint-Antoine Hospital,

Paris, was quick to pick up on this, and

has been conducting research into the link

between microbiota and Crohn's disease

for several years. Winner of the French

grant awarded by the Biocodex Foundation

in 2018, he has been caring for Crohn's

disease patients for several years. He and

his team observed reduced levels of an

anti-inflammatory bacteria, F. prausnitzii.

Since this bacteria can not be “grown”, they

instead identified a protein known as “MAM”

(microbiota anti-inflammatory molecule) which

could be used to reduce inflammation

Using this MAM protein as a biomarker would

be a fantastic way of improving the way we

care for patients and guiding our therapeutic

choices Dr McLellan explained adding that

the difficulty lies in identifying this protein in

patients stools Thats why were currently

working to produce a PCR test that would

allow us to quantify the number of DNA

sequences of the MAM protein in patients

stools

COMING SOON!

BIOCODEX MICROBIOTA FOUNDATION

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