A research team based at University College Cork has developed a bacteria which when added to yoghurt results in a significant reduction in cholesterol among people who have high levels of the fat-like substance.
The finding, part of a study funded by a European consortium, was outlined yesterday to 300 of the world's leading food technologists who are meeting in Cork. Prof Kevin Collins of UCC Department of Medicine and Microbiology said he had set out to prove such a trend was impossible.
"To discover cholesterol control by feeding a dairy product (a fullfat yoghurt containing the bacteria) is phenomenal," he said.
The strain is known as Lactoba- cillus UCC118. The effects of feeding it to 80 patients at the Mercy Hospital in Cork, many with high cholesterol, was examined. In large amounts, cholesterol contributes to heart disease and blockage of arteries.
The Lactobacillus species is a "good bug" but should also be considered a "designer bug" for it is part of a new selection scientists have developed for incorporation into foods. They can boost the immune system, improve microbial make-up of the gut, or act as cancer preventatives.
The UCC team selected 20 criteria for use in selecting a bug of benefit. This strategy in selecting "probiotic" lactobacilli (which promote beneficial microbe growth in the body, the opposite to antibiotic) has proven to be correct after vigorous animal and human trials, Prof Collins said.
Lactobacillus UCC118 significantly improved the blend of microbes in the gut, stayed there longer than any other probiotic being investigated throughout the world and provoked a good immune response.
"In other words, it did not behave like a pathogenic organism," he said.
Further research will establish why the bug worked so well when blended with a yoghurt. It is likely it will also benefit the immune system and help in the treatment of inflammatory gut disease, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. New trials would focus on these areas, Prof Collins told the conference on functional foods and probiotics.
It also had a potential role in HIV vaccines, and treatment of gastrointestinal infections and diarrhoea, which in the third world accounts for the deaths of three million children a year.
