The role of endotoxin/LPS in chronic liver disease and failure is well-known in animal research. LPS is one of the most commonly used methods for quickly inducing liver inflammation, fattening, scarring/cirrhosis, and ultimately failure. However, the role of LPS in human liver disease continues to be denied by medicine with the claim that in healthy people LPS is so quickly neutralized by the liver that it does not have much chance to cause damage. Yet, multiple human studies have demonstrated that alcohol – a universally recognized factor in liver disease – can only cause damage in animals/humans with intact microbiome. It does not cause liver disease in organisms with sterile guts, or organisms where the gut barrier (which alcohol readily compromises) has been restored with things such as dietary saturated fat, serotonin (especially 5-HT3) antagonists, NAD+ precursors such as niacinamide, TLR4 (endotoxin receptor) blockers, etc. Thus, the evidence that endotoxin/LPS is perhaps the main cause of liver disease is overwhelming. As such, measures to reduce endotoxin levels directly should be prophylactic and therapeutic for liver disease. And that is exactly what the study below states. It found that the oral administration of “…tiny…carbon beads” (a fancy, expensive and non-superior analog of activated charcoal) reduced LPS levels and blocked liver scarring (cirrhosis), with no side effects (already confirmed in humans).
https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2023-330699
Carbon Beads Aid in Restoring Healthy Gut Microbiome and Reducing Liver Disease Progression
“…The study, published in Gut, found that the carbon beads, licensed to UCL-spinout Yaqrit, were effective in restoring gut health and had a positive impact on liver, kidney and brain function in rats and mice. They were also found to be safe for human use. The next step will be to see if the same benefits can be realised in humans, which would pave the way for them to be used to treat diseases linked to poor gut health.”
“…Explaining the current clinical challenges, senior author Professor Rajiv Jalan from the UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, said: “The influence of the gut microbiome on health is only just beginning to be fully appreciated. When the balance of the microbiome is upset, ‘bad’ bacteria can proliferate and out-compete the ‘good’ bacteria that keeps the gut healthy. “One of the ways they do this is by excreting endotoxin, toxic metabolites and cytokines that transform the gut environment to make it more favourable to them and hostile to good bacteria. These substances, particularly endotoxin, can trigger gut inflammation and increase the leakiness of the gut wall, resulting in damage to other organs such as the liver, kidneys and brain. “In cirrhosis, a condition characterised by scarring of the liver, it is known that inflammation caused by endotoxins can exacerbate liver damage. Part of the standard treatment for cirrhosis is antibiotics aimed at controlling bad bacteria, but this comes with the risk of antibiotic resistance and is only used in late-stage disease.” To overcome this, scientists at UCL, in collaboration with Yaqrit, developed tiny oral carbon beads, that have a special microscopic physical structure designed to adsorb both large and small molecules in the gut.”
“…They found that when ingested every day for several weeks, the beads were effective in preventing the progress of liver scarring and injury in animals with cirrhosis, and reduced mortality in animals with acute-on-chronic-liver-failure (ACLF). The beads were also tested on 28 cirrhosis patients and proved to be safe with negligible side effects. If the same benefits observed in animal models occur in humans, the beads could be an important new tool to help tackle liver disease. Michal Kowalski, a Vice President and the CARBALIVE product lead at Yaqrit, said: “These novel, engineered carbon beads, which are swallowed and pass through the body unaltered, are smaller than a grain of salt. They work by absorbing the endotoxins and other metabolites produced by ‘bad’ bacteria in the gut, creating a better environment for the good bacteria to flourish and helping to restore microbiome health. This prevents these toxins from leaching into other areas of the body and causing damage, as they do in cirrhosis. “The results in animal models are very positive, with reduction in gut permeability, liver injury, as well as brain and kidney dysfunction.”
