CapScan is a non-invasive, ingestible collection device that is the size of a standard vitamin pill. Each device has a pH-targeted enteric coating, designed to dissolve at a pre-set rate based on the distinct pH levels of the various regions of the human intestines. Once this coating dissolves, CapScan’s internal bladder opens and draws in luminal content, which is then analyzed outside the body. CapScan’s multi-regional sampling capabilities allow the spatiotemporal measurement of pancreatic and liver secretions, small intestine microbiota, secondary metabolites, drug metabolism, inflammatory biomarkers, bile acid transformations, and fiber fermentations.
In the Nature Metabolism article, titled “Human metabolome variation along the upper intestinal tract,” researchers from University of California, Davis evaluated CapScan’s ability to study the spatiotemporal variation of upper intestinal metabolome during routine daily digestion in 15 healthy subjects. The scientists identified approximately 1,900 metabolites, including sulfonolipids and fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFA) lipids, some of which had never before been detected in human samples. They also identified associations between metabolites and dietary biomarkers, and luminal keto acids and fruit intake.
Importantly, results revealed that the stool metabolome differed significantly from the intestinal metabolome, suggesting that analyzing stool does not provide an accurate representation of the metabolites present in the intestines. As an example, 31 metabolites were >100 times more abundant on average in the intestine comparted with stool. In addition, researchers found significant variability of the metabolome along the intestinal tract itself, highlighting the regional and dynamic nature of the gut.
“Researchers have been limited in evaluating gut metabolites due to the lack of sampling capability along the entire intestinal tract,” said Dari Shalon, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Envivo Bio. “Together, our Nature Metabolism publication and our companion landmark Nature article show that CapScan can provide extraordinary insights into the inner microbial and metabolic mechanisms of gut activities beyond what scientists have been able to study in stool or with endoscopic sampling.”
In the companion Nature article, titled “Profiling the human intestinal environment under physiological conditions,” researchers from multiple universities and institutions describe CapScan’s ability to measure microbial, viral, proteomic, and bile acid profiles within the human intestines during normal digestion.
“Taken together, these two studies illustrate the utility and importance of sampling directly from the intestines to enhance our understanding of the relationship between us, our commensal microbes and the gut metabolome,” said Oliver Fiehn, Ph.D., professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of California, Davis, and senior author on the Nature Metabolism paper. “Routine access to intestinal samples will advance research into human nutrition, and could potentially lead to new therapies to human disease.”
# # #
