AILSA CHANG, HOST:
PFAS, or forever chemicals, are everywhere in our daily lives. These manufactured chemicals show up in our food, our water, consumer products, and they are inside of us. Now, scientists in the U.K. say we may be able to harness our gut microbiome to eliminate at least some of these chemicals from our bodies. NPR's Will Stone explains.
WILL STONE, BYLINE: These PFAS chemicals, and there are thousands of them, show up in the blood of virtually every American. Their effect on our health isn't fully understood, but research has found links to cancer, cardiovascular disease, decreased fertility and other harms. Kiran Patil is a professor of molecular systems biology at the University of Cambridge. He says there's no easy way to get rid of them.
KIRAN PATIL: They're forever chemicals because it's very difficult to attack them chemically.
STONE: Scientists are exploring how to remove them from our environment - for example, using harsh chemicals or intense heat.
PATIL: But of course, you know, we can't apply this process to human bodies to get rid of them.
STONE: This is why Patil turned to the bacteria in our gut microbiome. His team has identified certain strains that have a remarkable ability to sop up these chemicals.
PATIL: To kind of act as a sponge and soak them up inside and store them inside.
STONE: Images from his lab show this clearly - clusters of PFAS molecules stashed in the bacterial cells. The research was published in the journal Nature Microbiology today. Patil's lab ran experiments with mice. Their microbiomes were first colonized by these bacteria strains from the human gut. The scientists saw the bacteria absorb the PFAS, and the animals eventually cleared it when they went to the bathroom.
PATIL: This natural PFAS removal process, which we did not know before we studied it.
STONE: Patil says the next step is to launch clinical trials in humans to see whether probiotics can increase the amount of these PFAS-hungry bacteria. He and his collaborators have started a company to do this.
ANDREW PATTERSON: I think this is a really important finding.
STONE: Andrew Patterson is a researcher at Penn State who works on PFAS in the gut microbiome. He says the findings open up a tantalizing possibility, but everything gets a lot more complicated when you jump from mice to humans.
PATTERSON: How do you increase those beneficial bacteria through probiotics? I mean, that's quite challenging.
STONE: Not to mention there are many PFAS chemicals, and some could act differently.
PATTERSON: This certainly teases at that possibility that there's therapeutic benefit. I think without the human trials, it's probably still, you know, a little premature to make that assessment.
STONE: But Patterson agrees the research offers a new direction and some hope for tackling a growing problem.
Will Stone, NPR News.
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