Intestinal Bacteria-Related Drug

Abstract

Several strains were screened from thousands of streptococcal strains isolated from the feces of healthy humans, and were found to have activities to reduce the levels of the serum cholesterol and triglyceride in rats and rabbits. Of the strains, Streptococcus faecalis AD1001 has strong hypocholesterolemic and hypotriglyceridemic activities in rats and rabbits, and an activity to cure atherosclerosis in rabbits. These effects are observed in the oral administration of the viable and heattreated dead cells, indicating that there are bacterial substances which reduce the cholesterol and triglyceride levels. It was revealed that the bacterial substances are protein and polysaccharide, respectively. The streptococci used in the present experiments were thought to be safe for the oral administration. The epidemiological study showed a negative co-relation between the population level of the fecal streptococci and the serum cholesterol level in hyperlipidemic patients.