Oral delivery of GLP-1 peptide using recombinant Lactobacillus gasseri for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus

TL;DR

This paper presents a new method for orally delivering a diabetes treatment using engineered probiotics to improve effectiveness and patient compliance.

Contribution

A novel probiotic-based oral delivery system for GLP-1 peptides using Lactobacillus gasseri is developed and tested.

Findings

LgsGPA cultures increased insulin release and PDX-1 expression in Min6 cells.

Oral LgsGPA reduced insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia in diabetic mice.

LgsGPA altered gut microbiota composition in diabetic and healthy rats.

Abstract

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is an effective therapeutic peptide for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Here, we constructed an effective probiotic-based oral GLP-1 delivery system by engineering the probiotic strain of Lactobacillus gasseri (LgsGPA) to secrete GLP-1 fusion peptide, which combines GLP-1 with protein transduction domain (PTD) and a serum albumin binding peptide (ABP), GLP-1-PTD-ABP (GPA). The supernatants of LgsGPA cultures significantly upregulated the expression of PDX-1 and stimulated insulin release in Min6 cells. Daily oral administration of LgsGPA in db/db mice significantly alleviated insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia. Simultaneously, the abundance of unclassified_f_Erysipelotrichaceae and Intestinimonas was significantly reduced in db/db mice, while the average abundance of Akkermansia increased in the SD rats. These findings demonstrate that the probiotic-based delivery system represents a versatile and effective strategy for the oral administration of therapeutic peptides. Collectively, our results highlight the potential of this probiotic-based approach as a promising therapeutic and preventive intervention for T2DM.

It is important to develop the oral delivery strategy for therapeutic peptides. Due to issues with patient adherence and the low oral bioavailability of current administration methods, researchers have been exploring oral delivery strategies for GLP-1 analogs for many years, including the use of advanced microbiome therapeutics (AMTs). AMTs offer the potential to use engineered microbes for innovative therapeutic applications, such as the oral delivery of GLP-1 analogs. Our approaches offer a general oral delivery strategy for therapeutic peptides. The probiotic-based approach represents a promising method for treating and preventing T2DM.

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