Bloom Science Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) launched Thursday to develop microbiome-based therapeutics to treat epilepsy utilizing technology from the University of California Los Angeles. The UCLA group also published a paper in Cell Thursday showing that a ketogenic diet is beneficial in controlling epileptic seizures due to its influence on the gut microbiome, which in turn mediates hippocampal GABA and glutamate ratios.
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that has previously been shown to help treat epilepsy.
In two mouse models of intractable epilepsy, the researchers showed that the diet increased the abundance of Akkermansia and Parabacteroides, and those species conferred seizure protection.
Bloom CEO Tony Colasin said the company will develop a biologic and a medical food product based on the microbes in the Cell paper. The company has exclusive rights to the technology from UCLA; terms of the deal are not disclosed.
He said he expects the biologic, which will use proprietary strains of bacteria optimized for specific patient epilepsy patient populations, to be IND-ready by year end.
Bloom has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding to begin manufacturing.
Several other companies, such as Enterin Inc. (Philadelphia, Pa.), are capitalizing on mounting evidence linking the microbiome to gut immunity, and to CNS disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and autism. Enterin is inhibiting the accumulation of alpha synuclein (SNCA) in intestinal nerves with the goal of treating constipation and non-motor symptoms associated with PD (see BioCentury Innovations, May 11).