Colonic Submucosa Targeted Delivery of Probiotic and Rhein for Ulcerative Colitis Treatment

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Microbiology

Background:

• Ulcerative colitis (UC) presents challenges in drug delivery due to colonic barriers.
• Existing treatments struggle to penetrate deep colonic layers for effective management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel drug delivery system for targeted delivery to the colonic submucosa.
• To investigate the efficacy of co-encapsulated Bacillus subtilis (BS) and Rhein (Rh) in yeast microparticles (YPs) for UC treatment.

Main Methods:

• Development of Rh-YBS, a novel system co-encapsulating BS and Rh in YPs.
• In vivo studies using a DSS-induced UC mouse model to assess drug delivery and therapeutic effects.
• Investigation of the CGRP-related neural pathway activation and its role in mucosal repair.

Main Results:

• Rh-YBS successfully targeted colonic microfold cells for direct delivery of BS to the submucosa.
• Rh enhanced BS colonization, and Rh-YBS demonstrated in vivo proliferation within the submucosa.
• Rh-YBS stimulated the CGRP pathway, increasing CGRP secretion, mucus production, and mucosal repair in UC models.

Conclusions:

• Rh-YBS is an innovative drug delivery system for ulcerative colitis.
• The system activates a unique CGRP-related neural pathway mechanism for mucosal repair.
• Rh-YBS shows potential for both treatment and prevention of UC.