Identification of beneficial probiotics for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and elucidation of mechanism

Non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD) is cause by accumulation of lipid droplets in liver. NAFLD is the starting point of liver disease and later develop into nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, cirrhosis and finally hepatocellular carcinoma. Since there is no specific therapeutics for NAFLD-related liver diseases, development of new drug for NAFLD/NASH is actively on-going. Recently, application of lactic acid bacteria as probiotics has been popular because the correlation of intestinal composition of microbiome has been elucidated with chronic diseases including atopic dermatitis, obesity, insulin resistance and autism. In this collaborative project, we aim 1) to identify the beneficial intestinal bacteria or lactic acid bacteria from screening for decreased permeability of enterocytes, 2) to identify the metabolites with bioefficacy to activate fatty acid oxidation or inhibit lipogenesis in liver 3) to examine in vivo efficacy of selected probiotics for NAFLD/NASH in animal disease models. We expect that elucidation of efficacious probiotics and application will be a new therapeutic method to treat chronic liver diseases.

Faculty Supervisor:

Gary Sweeney

Student:

Partner:

Gachon University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Life Sciences (not health); Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Pharmaceuticals

University:

York University

Program: