Meddling gut bacteria get in the way of heart therapy

Wait until you meet gut bacteria.

epos.de

Bacteria in the human gut, which are present in the billions, can change the effect of medicine. This has been demonstrated for at least 40 drugs. But until now, nobody knew exactly how.

New research, published in Science by the lab of Peter Turnbaugh at Harvard University, helps solve this riddle, at least for one drug. The team looked at digoxin, which is used to treat heart failure and arrhythmia (irregular beats). Digoxin is only effective within a narrow range of concentrations. This makes getting the right digoxin dose very tricky—a challenge made more difficult by the gut bacteria.

The drugs don’t work

Digoxin is inactivated by a bacterium found in the gut called Eggerthella lenta. The bug changes the drug’s structure so it cannot interact normally with its target. This inactive form, called dihydrodigoxin, is also quickly excreted by the patient. Turnbaugh aimed to find out how E. lenta inactivated the drug and how to prevent it from doing so.