Materials modulate immunity and gut microbiome(1)

A nanoscale hyaluronic acid–bilirubin nanomedicine (HABN) conjugate enables aqueous formulation of water-insoluble bilirubin using a nano-aggregation process. The HABNs accumulate in the inflamed colonic epithelium, restore the gut barriers, alter the gut commensal microbiota likely to be due to an increase in anti-microbial peptides, and regulate innate immune response to manifest a therapeutic response in a mouse model of colitis.

Unconjugated bilirubin has protective effects in experimental colitis; however, bilirubin is hydrophobic, which makes delivery difficult and excessive dosing can result in serious toxic events limiting its clinical development. Oral delivery of HABN nanomedicine increased the diversity and relative abundance of microbial species, which are implicated in IBD patients and associated with mucus production, expression of tight junction proteins and induction of regulatory T cells.

1. A. Singh, Materials modulate immunity and gut microbiome. Nat. Mater. 19 (2020), pp. 3–4.