Scientists' discovery could help protect against PFAS chemicals
'Slow poison'
There has been increasing concern about the environmental and health impacts of PFAS, which take thousands of years to break down in the environment.Most people are exposed to the substances through water and food.In some cases, the chemical is cleared out of the body through urine, but it could also stay in the body for years.PFAS are so widespread that they are in all of us, said Dr Anna Lindell, a researcher at the University of Cambridge's MRC Toxicology Unit and first author of the study."PFAS were once considered safe, but it's now clear that they're not. "It's taken a long time for PFAS to become noticed because at low levels they're not acutely toxic. But they're like a slow poison."Researcher and co-author, Dr Indra Roux, added as PFAS were already in the environment and in our bodies, we needed to mitigate their impact. "We haven't found a way to destroy PFAS, but our findings open the possibility of developing ways to get them out of our bodies where they do the most harm."
Researchers found certain species of human gut bacteria had a remarkably high capacity to soak up PFAS and store it in clumps inside their cells. Dr Kiran Patil, the senior author of the report, said: "Due to aggregation of PFAS in these clumps, the bacteria themselves seem protected from the toxic effects."The scientists made their findings after nine of the bacterial species were introduced into the guts of mice to "humanise" the mouse microbiome.The bacteria rapidly accumulated PFAS eaten by the mice - which were then excreted in faeces.It was the first evidence that the gut microbiome could be helpful in removing toxic PFAS chemicals from our body.It has not yet been directly tested in humans.The researchers planned to create probiotic dietary supplements to boost the levels of the helpful microbes in our gut, to protect against the toxic effects of PFAS.Dr Lindell and Dr Patil co-founded a startup, Cambiotics, with entrepreneur Peter Holme Jensen to develop a probiotic dietary supplement to boost the levels of the helpful microbes and protect against the toxic effects of PFAS.
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