2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Development of functional probiotics as therapeutics or prophylactics for autoimmune diseases
| Project/Area Number |
22K19753
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
|
| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
|---|
| Review Section |
Medium-sized Section 59:Sports sciences, physical education, health sciences, and related fields
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Kagawa University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
今大路 治之 (中山治之) 香川大学, 医学部, 講師 (80294669)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
|
| Keywords | Autoimmune disease / Probiotics / Clostridium butyricum / butyric acid / antigen display |
|---|
| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Immune responses to self-antigens are suppressed by a mechanism called immune tolerance. Regulatory T cells play an important role in this immune tolerance. In this study, we expressed an autoimmune disease-associating peptide in Clostridium butyricum, which produces butyric acid that induces regulatory T cells, to develop the functional probiotics as therapeutics or prophylactics for autoimmune disease. We succeeded in creating a C. butyricum that displays an autoantigen on the cell wall by fusing it to type IV fimbriae protein derived from Clostridium perfringens. In addition, we identified a plant fermentation extract that induces butyric acid production in this bacterium.
|
| Free Research Field |
腸内細菌学
|
| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
自己免疫疾患患者は日本国内だけでも数百万人と見積もられており、現在も増加している。自己免疫疾患の発症と関連する遺伝子変異や環境因子は複雑で疾患毎に異なっており、その多くは効果的な根治療法がなく、炎症と免疫を強力に抑えるステロイドや免疫抑制剤による対症療法が中心である。近年、関節リウマチなどに対して、病態形成に強く関連する物質（炎症性サイトカイン）を制御する抗体薬品が開発され効果を上げているが、これらも自己免疫疾患を根治するものでなく、また、100%の効果を上げることは出来ていない。本研究成果は、新たな自己免疫疾患の治療法や予防法の開発に重要な知見を提供するものである。
|
