Here’s a company you probably never heard about.  LNC Therapeutics, founded in 2010.  But, if they keep up their developments, you will.

A little background.

We’re finding out more and more about these pesky little microbes that run our lives.  No, I’m not talking about SARS-CoV-2 and the pandemic.  I’m talking about the microbes in our gut.  The ones that help us digest foods, control our moods, keep us healthy.

I’ve written about fecal transplants and their usefulness.  This is more than that.

The microbes in our gut can be characterized into three groups- dominant bacteria, subdominant bacteria, and opportunistic pathogens.  But, among those groups is something LNC calls keystone bacteria.

These microbes effect specific metabolic functions upon which the other gut microbes rely- in a kind of domino effect, to greatly increase the results.  They sometimes act to submit a specific signal to our immune system- which activates the beneficial microbes in our gut to respond to the challenge.

These keystone bacteria are among the subdominant species.  In particular, they are usually the slow growing variety that affords the fast growing microbes the materials they need to act.

And, one of the key species LNC adores are the Christensenella. These are rod-shaped anaerobes (grow in oxygen-free environments), part of the Firmicute dynasty (one of the two major groups among gut bacteria).

Human genes govern their presence in the gut. This family of microbes prevail in the guts of those who are not obese; moreover, we know for a fact that they reduce weight gain in mice. These microbes afford the gut the ability to augment the population of Oscillospira, which in turn is associated with gut-species diversity (a biomarker for health).

Which is why LNC licensed a patent from Cornell University that applies to obesity and other metabolic diseases. To the end of developing and marketing a drug to manage obesity- even marketing Christensenella as a live biotherapeutic product. (Clinical trials are expected to begin soon.)

(The FDA has defined live biotherapeutic products [LBP] as living organisms that can prevent, treat, or cure a disease or condition in humans.  LNC’s goal is to develop single-strain LBP’s, not mixtures, specifically targeting a disease or condition.)

But, there’s more.  They just licensed another Christensenella application form the University of Valencia (Spain).  (Dr. Yolanda Sanz, Spanish National Research Council was the lead- and Sanz also direct the European MyNewGut project [one of the largest microbiome research initiatives].) The goal for this use?  Mood disorders- such as depression and anxiety.

This particular development is capitalizing on the gut-brain connection.  (The enteric nervous system, the neural network of the gut, has about ½ neurons and connects to the brain via the vagus nerve, called the gut-brain axis. I wrote about this in connection to Parkinson’s Disease development.)

It’s time for us to study up on the Christensenella family of microbes.