Mucus-directed therapeutics to prevent and treat chronic microbiota-dependent diseases of the gut

The colon is teeming with life, not just due to our own cells, but also due to a rich and diverse community of microbes. Remarkably, this community is a virtual organ, helping to digest food and fight inflammation. Unfortunately, this “organ” can malfunction and cause chronic diseases like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which affects thousands of Canadians. How to promote the benefits and prevent the harmful activities of our microbiota is a central question. One major factor is gut mucus, a sugar-rich gel-like layer that surrounds the microbiota to act as a barrier to prevent their invasion. This mucus layer is defective in IBD. The objective of my research is to develop new ways to capture the protective power of human mucus to prevent and cure IBD. To do this I will use a new approach my lab developed to extract and purify human mucus to test its protective abilities in mouse models of IBD. We will also learn how microbes control mucus production so we can target these pathways in patients. Last we will use human colon cells to generate a “mucus factory” that can produce mucus with enhanced protective properties. The results of this research will illuminate new paths to restore healthy host-bacteria relationships in IBD.