Engineered long-acting S. boulardii yeast for IBD

An engineered strain of the intrinsically anti-inflammatory yeast Saccharomyces boulardii — designed to overcome the parental strain's short residence time in the gut by binding fibronectin or COL4, which are upregulated in inflamed regions of the colon — could help treat IBD.

S. boulardii, which releases short-chain fatty acids that induce IL-10 production in bone marrow-derived dendritic cells, and inhibits NFkB signaling by host intestinal epithelial cells, was engineered to express streptavidin, and then incubated with biotinylated antibodies targeting either fibronectin or COL4, resulting in antibody-labeled yeast cells. ...