U.S. firm tests microbiome-based drug for inflammatory bowel disease

A new drug developed by a U. S. firm to treat inflammatory bowel disease has achieved initial success in the Phase I clinical trials, raising hopes to find a cure to related illnesses such as Crohn's disease.

Second Genome, the San Francisco-based pharmaceutical company working on the ground-breaking drug known as SGM-1019, began research four years ago with an exclusive focus on microbiomes, the generic name for the 100 trillion bacteria humans host in their bodies.

Microbiomes are believed to play a bigger part than previously expected in the body system, with a delicate balance that, when upset, can trigger certain inflammations and diseases. Through SGM- 1019, researchers hope to inhibit a target that triggers inflammatory bowel disease in intestines.

"SGM-1019 blocks the damaging activity of the microbiome in the intestine," Chief Executive Officer Peter DiLaura told Xinhua. "We have pinpointed a specific protein secreted by certain bacteria that causes the inflammation, and the drug can block this protein' s interaction, reducing inflammation."

Research on microbiome had long been dismissed as minor study by most of the scientific community, since the common thought was that bacteria in human body played a secondary role, mostly pathogenic. The downplay was due to the fact that technology had not allowed researchers to study all of bacteria's properties.

"One of the reasons no one has ever looked into microbiomes is because the study depended on sequencing technology," DiLaura said. "But this technology has now evolved enough for us to look at this component of human biology."

He claimed that Second Genome was the first company to zero in on microbiome's interaction with the body, a field that is now growing and expanding.

"Four years ago we were the first one to start looking into microbiomes and what we found and still find up to this day is tremendously exciting," he said. "We have been able to identify things that bacteria secrete that (in turn) stimulates the body's mechanism in many different ways."

The company believes there is a specific process that drives many bacteria to secrete substances leading to inflammatory bowel disease, an illness that afflicts over five million people worldwide. Sometimes, according to studies, external factors, such as certain antibiotics or foods, can trigger bacteria to behave differently.

Second Genome has concluded the first tests of Phase I clinical trials, which DiLaura said to be very successful, though he preferred not to disclose percentages of success rates. Second tests will begin this year for the same phase. There is a long way to go to fully understand inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's or Ulcerative colitis, but the study of microbiomes has opened doors.

"We have a program underway to study bacterial interaction in certain metabolic diseases like obesity, as well as airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive disease," DiLaura said. Endite