US study finds plant-rich diet protects mice against E. coli infection
Foodborne infection – gastrointestinal (GI) infection – sees several outbreaks worldwide each year as pathogens in food develop different strategies to compete against the harmless microbes that line the gut, which include strains of E. coli that helps with the normal digestion process. Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern) in Dallas have recently discovered that mice fed a plant-rich diet are less susceptible to potentially deadly inflammation in the colon caused by a strain of E. coli known as EHEC.
Professor Vanessa Sperandio at UT Southwestern explains that “intestinal pathogens like EHEC compete with the gut’s resident microbiota” which lends to the virulence of EHEC and, in severe cases, may be fatal.
In the animal study, mice fed pectin, a gel-like substance found in many fruits and vegetables, for about a week were observed to have a much lower rate of infection. These mice also had fewer bacteria in their cecum – 10,000 bacteria compared to 1 million bacteria in mice on a typical diet. The cecum is a pouch at the juncture of the small and large intestines used to analyse the amount of bacteria in the mouse gut.
Sperendio noted that the two types of E. coli may have evolved to avoid competing for the same energy sources in the colon. She added that a pectin level of only 5% appeared to “prevent EHEC from activating its virulence repertoire” which sets off inflammation and symptoms of infection.
Although mice are actually unaffected by EHEC, the research will provide a better understanding of the virulence of intestinal pathogens in humans and hopefully lead to the development of new vaccines or drugs to reduce the often debilitating symptoms of intestinal disease.
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