New trend in medicine - tablets from bacteria

As a society, we became obsessed with fighting microbes and bacteria. And although some bacteria can actually cause disease, others, useful bacteria, are treated. Probiotics, recently become popular, quite often include in their composition certain types of useful bacteria. At the moment, scientists are promoting health care one step further, and they want to include bacteria in the composition of medicines.

Take, for example, bacteria in our intestines. They not only help the digestion process, but can also be useful for the work of our brain. Seres Health is looking for bacteria that can cure Clostridium difficile or C. difficile, a disease of the gastrointestinal tract caused by antibiotics that kill vital bacteria. C. difficile kills 14,000 people a year, only in the US. In the company of Seres, intestinal bacteria were studied in detail to identify which of them are related to the normal functioning of the body. Based on this, they created their own strain of bacteria and placed them in pills.

Of course, this strain will be kept under lock and key, as well. The competition in the pharmaceutical market is very tough, but it is impossible to patent something natural that is relevant to the human body, like these bacteria. Other companies are already looking for ways to genetically modify these bacteria in order to patent any drug they receive. As for the drug, the pills with bacteria can have side effects: irritable bowel syndrome, for example, because intestinal bacteria are complex, and two healthy people may have different sets of them.

Tests are still ongoing, but using bacteria as a medicine can change the future of medicine, creating more natural therapeutic agents than most drugs on the market.