A team of Canadian researchers has uncovered an unexpected way to improve blood sugar levels and reduce liver damage by trapping a little-known molecule produced by gut bacteria before it can enter the bloodstream and disrupt metabolism.

Scientists from McMaster University Université Laval and the University of Ottawa found that a molecule made by gut microbes can enter the bloodstream and prompt the liver to overproduce glucose and fat. However, when this molecule was trapped in the gut mice with obesity showed significant improvements in blood sugar regulation and fatty liver symptoms.

This is a new twist on a classic metabolic pathway explained senior author Jonathan Schertzer a professor at McMaster. While the Cori cycle describes the exchange of lactate and glucose between muscles and the liver we’ve now discovered that gut bacteria are also key players in this metabolic dialogue.

In 1947 Carl and Gerty Cori won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for revealing how muscles produce L-lactate which fuels the liver’s glucose production creating a cycle that supplies energy back to the muscles. Their discovery laid the groundwork for understanding how muscles and the liver communicate through fuel exchange.

Building on this concept a Canadian research team discovered that people and mice with obesity have elevated levels of a lesser-known molecule D-lactate in their blood. Unlike L-lactate which is produced by muscles D-lactate is mainly generated by gut bacteria and was found to significantly raise blood sugar and liver fat.

To counter this the team developed a gut substrate trap a safe biodegradable polymer that binds to D-lactate in the gut preventing its absorption. Mice treated with this trap showed improved blood sugar levels reduced insulin resistance, and decreased liver inflammation and fibrosis without changes in diet or weight.

This represents a new strategy for treating metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease said Dr. Jonathan Schertzer lead author and Canada Research Chair in Metabolic Inflammation. Rather than targeting hormones or the liver, we’re stopping a harmful microbial fuel before it enters the body.

Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the study underscores the critical role of the gut microbiome in chronic disease.

Source: https://healthsci.mcmaster.ca/trapping-gut-bacterias-hidden-fuel-improves-blood-sugar-and-liver-health-study-shows/