NU 2023-131
INVENTORS
Jonathan Xia
Arthur Prindle*
BACKGROUND
The prevalence of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), a spectrum of chronic autoimmune inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, has steadily increased from 3.7 million in 1990 to 6.8 million in 2017. The spectrum of diseases are characterized by a relapsing and remitting course of gut inflammation which are difficult to predict. Current methods of activity surveillance for IBD include endoscopy which is an invasive technique that requires medical expertise. Northwester researchers have engineered a probiotic capable of detecting IBD biomarkers with sensitivity and specificity. The probiotic strain of E. coli exhibits a specific expression increase in the presence of calprotectin, the clinical gold-standard IBD biomarker. In mouse models of ulcerative colitis, studies show that following oral delivery, the reporter signal is activated in vivo during transit of the GI tract. Furthermore, the engineered probiotic bacteria is capable of discriminating between patients with active IBD from those in remission/without IBD using patient stool samples. This novel inflammation sensitive bacteria provides a precise and non-invasive method of detecting fecal calprotectin and for monitoring disease activity in IBD patients.
IP STATUS
A provisional patent application has been filed.