Cardiovascular diseases: These intestinal bacteria lower cholesterol levels

2024-04-05 08:43:47

Health New therapeutic approach

These intestinal bacteria lower cholesterol levels

Status: 05.04.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes

Cholesterol-rich breakfast: Certain intestinal bacteria could prevent harmful effects

Quelle: picture alliance / Zoonar

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Bacteria instead of pills: This is what a therapy approach against high cholesterol levels could look like in the future. Researchers from the USA have discovered that a specific intestinal bacterium probably reduces the blood concentration of harmful cholesterol.

Certain bacteria in the intestine could counteract high cholesterol levels – and thus help to avoid cardiovascular diseases in particular. This is indicated by a study published by a US research group in the journal “Cellpublished. Accordingly, people with a high concentration of a specific genus of bacteria in their intestines also have less cholesterol in their intestines and blood.

The fundamental importance of intestinal flora for health is not new: a change in the diversity of bacteria in the intestine (gut microbiome) has already been linked to various diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity and inflammatory bowel disease.

However, the team led by Ramnik Xavier from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University has now found that microbes in the intestine may help reduce cholesterol levels and thus the risk of cardiovascular disease in people.

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Although cholesterol levels are influenced by genes, diet and lifestyle, another team led by Xavier has already shown that the microbiome in the intestine can also break down cholesterol, report the authors of the new study. However, in the 2020 work, the individual types of bacteria and their metabolism were not analyzed in more detail.

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The team now used data and stool samples from 1,429 participants in the so-called Framingham Heart Study in the USA: Since 1948, people have been systematically examined for the causes and risks of cardiovascular diseases. Using modern sequencing methods, the researchers also decoded the entire DNA of the microbes in a stool sample. They also recorded thousands of metabolic products.

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During the summary analysis, the team found numerous statistical connections between gut bacteria and certain cardiovascular data. A remarkable main result: people with a particularly large number of bacteria from this genus Oscillibacter in the intestine had lower cholesterol levels in stool and blood.

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“The project results underline the importance of high-quality patient data,” comments one of the two first authors, Martin Stražar from Xavier’s laboratory. “They allowed us to notice effects that are really subtle and difficult to measure.”

It was already known that bacteria of the type Oscillibacter Absorb cholesterol and convert it into a much more harmless chemical relative, coprostanol. Coprostanol is not absorbed by the body, but rather excreted. The bacteria use a special enzyme.

This is exactly what could be an approach for new therapies: If it were possible to enrich the helpful bacteria in the intestinal flora or to supply them from outside, the cholesterol levels of patients with a high cardiovascular risk could also be reduced, the authors speculate. Further studies must now explore the possibility of using such therapies.

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“It is very exciting to research this further,” said bioinformatician Daoming Wang from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study, to the journal “Nature“.

The Federal Center for Nutrition (BZfE) recommends exercise and a healthy diet to lower cholesterol. The cholesterol concentration in the blood can increase due to saturated fatty acids, which are mainly found in animal fats, such as sausage, meat, butter and other dairy products.

In addition, cholesterol-rich foods – in addition to animal fats, include fatty meat and fatty sausages, smoked fish, offal and egg yolks – can lead to an increase in cholesterol, but to a lesser extent. In any case, unsaturated fatty acids, for example from the oils of plants and fish, are healthier.