Researchers develop oral capsule to control gut bacteria via mobile app

New Delhi: Researchers have developed an orally ingestible capsule that can be used to control gut bacteria via a smartphone app, showcasing a potential for digitally monitoring health and a remotely-controllable intervention, they said.

The team from Tianjin University and other institutes in China trialled the capsule in pigs with colon inflammation.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Microbiology, the researchers have described how it can help control and allow for a two-way communication with gut bacteria.

Gastrointestinal bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), are known to impact health. E. coli can be modified to deliver drugs to a specific site inside animals, the team explained.

However, once inside, the bacteria cannot be controlled, nor can it be communicated with, they said.

For the study, the authors engineered E. coli to communicate with a "smart" capsule using light. The capsule, featuring a circuit board and powered by batteries, was developed as an oral ingestible.

Three pigs, that were induced with colitis -- an inflammation of the colon, were colonised with the engineered gut bacteria that emitted light upon detecting nitrate, a biomarker that indicates colitis.

The pigs ingested the smart capsule, which detected the light emitted by the engineered gut bacteria and relayed it to a smartphone app that connects to the capsule via bluetooth, the researchers said.

Through the app, the team directed the capsule to emit light by flashing an LED (light-emitting diode), which then turned on a light-sensitive genetic circuit in the engineered E. coli.

The genetic circuit triggered the production of anti-inflammatory antibodies that alleviated colitis, the authors said.

By improving control over how an engineered bacteria behaves inside a living organism, the technology could boost the precision of diagnoses and therapies that make use of microbes, the team said.

They added that further refinement to support multiple rounds of communication and clinical testing could one day allow for its application in treating human diseases.

The authors wrote, "As a proof of concept, we engineered E coli Nissle 1917 to detect infammation-associated nitric oxide in the pig gut and generate a bioluminescent signal for diagnosis of colitis."

"This approach highlights the potential for integrating synthetic biology and optoelectronics for digital health monitoring and controllable intervention," they wrote.