Chinese researchers have engineered a probiotic that could make diabetes care as simple as drinking a cup of yogurt or swallowing a capsule.
The “smart” bacterium, designed to sense high blood sugar and automatically release a glucose-lowering hormone, performed on par with the blockbuster drug Ozempic in animal tests, according to a study published in Nature last week.
The team at East China Normal University in Shanghai has already filed patents and is now scaling up production to meet pharmaceutical standards for the US and European markets.
“If all goes well, the probiotic is expected to be available in the United States in the form of a health supplement in about two years,” lead scientist Ye Haifeng said in an interview with China Science Daily on Thursday.
Diabetes is one of the most common chronic metabolic diseases. More than 530 million adults worldwide have diabetes, and this number could increase to over 850 million by 2050. Patients must take oral medications or inject insulin to control their blood sugar.
After oral administration, the probiotic remains “silent” when blood glucose levels are normal and automatically triggers a glucose-lowering mechanism when levels rise.