Microbial metabolite supports gut recovery after cancer therapy

Patients undergoing stem cell transplantation or radiation therapy often face severe intestinal damage that impairs healing and increases infection risk. A recent study by the LIT Cooperation Group “Innate Immune Sensing in Cancer and Transplantation”, highlights how a microbial metabolite helps repair the intestinal barrier through stem cell activation and strengthens the immune system.

“Desaminotyrosine stimulates stem-cell repair and fine-tunes immunity using nutrient- and danger-sensing pathways,” explains PhD student Sascha Göttert from the University Hospital Regensburg (UKR) and first author of the study.

The research was led by Prof. Hendrik Poeck, Head of the LIT Cooperation Group, and Dr. Erik Thiele Orberg, Senior Physician at UKR, in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Their results offer valuable insights for developing microbiome-based therapies to improve outcomes after transplantation.

The molecule Desaminotyrosine (DAT) is produced when gut bacteria break down flavonoids found in fruits and vegetables. Even under broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment, which often worsens post-transplant recovery, DAT was shown to maintain its protective effect.

“The effect of DAT was observed even under broad-spectrum antibiotics, which, while often unavoidable, are linked to worse outcomes and remain a major limitation of allogenic stem-cell transplants,” says Dr. Erik Thiele Orberg.

Higher DAT levels in patients correlated with better survival rates and fewer relapses following transplantation. In preclinical models, synthetic DAT prevented the dangerous graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) by stabilizing the intestinal barrier and stimulating tissue repair, even when much of the healthy gut flora had been lost due to antibiotics.

The team used organoid cultures, also called mini-intestines, grown from human stem cells to study how DAT acts on the intestinal lining. These laboratory models demonstrated that DAT activates intestinal stem cells and strengthens them under stress, supporting both tissue regeneration and immune defense.

The study underscores how microbiome-derived metabolites could be used to protect patients from complications of cancer therapy. DAT not only promotes regeneration but also contributes to anti-cancer immune responses.

“These findings open exciting avenues for new microbiome-based treatments that could reduce side effects, improve quality of life, and enhance the effectiveness of life-saving therapies,” says Prof. Hendrik Poeck.

MEDICA-tradefair.com; Source: Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy