Probiotics, a potential new treatment for intestinal pain

Probiotics, which are already found in some foods such as dairy products, may represent a treatment of intestinal pain, say researchers from Inserm. The results of their research were published online in the journal "Nature Medicine".

Effective treatment

Bifidobacteria, lactobacilli and yeasts are beneficial micro-organisms that make up the health of intestinal flora, better known under the term "probiotics."

When used as nutritional supplements, their protective effect against certain pathogenic bacteria in the gut is recognized.

Researchers from Inserm and the Regional University Hospital of Lille have shown for the first time that oral administration of Lactobacillus acidophilus also induces strong action pain in the gut, similar to morphine.

Devoid of side effects, this type of probiotics could be particularly suitable for functional bowel disorders (or irritable bowel syndrome), which affects nearly 20% of French. One can also consider co-administered with morphine to relieve certain serious diseases such as colon cancer, reduce the dose and therefore adverse effects.

Abdominal or stomach pain are common in the general population. Thus, 10% to 20% of the population with a majority of women is affected by irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or irritable bowel syndrome characterized by bloating, pain and disruption of transit (constipation or diarrhea ) without organic cause identified. Yet there is no real treatment for this disease.

Some studies have shown that the administration of certain probiotics showed a therapeutic benefit through their role as barrier against pathogenic bacteria, including prevention of infectious diarrhea. However, their action on intestinal pain remained hypothetical and their mechanism of action unknown.

French researchers have discovered that as the daily oral administration of Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM in mice and rats, allowed to reduce the pain threshold in the colon. The benefits observed proved equivalent to that of morphine, a major analgesic administered subcutaneously at a dose of 1 mg / kg.

Associated with morphine, taking this probiotic has to increase its efficiency by 65%. Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM induced Indeed, on the outer walls of the colon expression of two families of receptors that play a key role in regulating pain.

The response is induced in a few hours in the majority of colonic epithelial cells, the first cells in direct contact with the intestinal flora. The anti-pain, depending on the dose administered probiotics, meanwhile occurs after ten days of treatment and continues until the probiotic is ingested.

The administration of Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM in patients with functional bowel disorders, also known as irritable bowel syndrome or irritable bowel syndrome, is being tested in humans for several months in the United States.

For patients with more severe disease, or post-operative situation and requiring treatments with morphine, the use of Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM can also be considered as co-directors. "This would reduce the effective dose and therefore the side effects of this class of drug," the authors suggest.

According to them, change the intestinal flora with probiotics represents a new concept of management of pain and intestinal discomfort without side effects. "Knowing that there are hundreds of different probiotics and not everyone has the same ability to induce an anti-pain, a better understanding of their role in our cells is expected to select a targeted these microorganisms for optimum use of the pain, "they say.

Learn more about probiotics

Probiotics are live microorganisms (mainly lactobacilli, bifidobacteria and yeasts) that, when ingested in sufficient quantities, have a health benefit. They are naturally present in the intestinal flora (more than 100 different species for a quantity of more than 100,000 billion bacteria) and dairy products.

Selected according to their health properties, probiotics can be produced in large quantities by multiplication and integrated industrial fermenters in certain foods: yogurt, cereal bars, food supplements, infant formula, fruit juice.

The number of new dairy products containing probiotics launched each year has increased fivefold in five years: in fact, more than 200 dairy products containing probiotics have been placed on the market in 2005. The growing market for food supplements containing probiotics accused in turn an increase of over 8% per year and continues to accelerate.

Several clinical trials based probiotics are made in humans. They concern allergic diseases (contact dermatitis, food allergy), prevention and / or treatment of childhood diarrhea or traveler, the prevention of colon cancer, the treatment of functional bowel disorders and inflammatory diseases also bowel disease (IBD).