Japanese researchers attribute to fusobacterium a role in the development of this chronic disease.
About 1 in 10 women of childbearing age worldwide are affected. I’endometriosis is defined by the WHO as “chronic disease associated with sharp and disturbing pain during menstruation, during sexual intercourse and when defecating and/or urinating, at pelvic pain chronic pain, bloating, nausea and fatigue, and sometimes to depression, anxiety and infertility”.
A disease with poorly defined contours that is the subject of much research, including a recent one conducted in Japan by the Graduate School of Medicine and the University of Nagoya.
A bacterium that promotes endometriosis?
According to the researchers, a type of bacteria, the fusobacteriam, would thus be involved. What if this discovery led to a simple antibiotic treatment?
To achieve their results, published in Science Translational Medicine, they subjected 155 women to bacterial samples. Among these women, half suffered from endometriosis.
Fusobacterium in 2 out of 3 women
They were therefore able to observe that this bacterium was present in 64% of women who suffered from endometriosis. And only 7% of those not suffering from it harbored the bacteria.
And this type of bacteria would indeed cause the inflammatory response at the base of the disease. And a special protein, “transgeline (TAGLN)” would have a very specific role. Professor Yutaka Kondo, from the University of Nagoya, summarizes:
In this study, we demonstrated that the Fusobacterium-TAGLN-endometriosis axis is frequently dysregulated in endometriosis.
Towards an antibiotic treatment?
The researchers, on mice, were able to observe that the uterus of rodents infected with the bacterium had more numerous, more important lesions. Conversely, they noted that those who had undergone specific antibiotic treatment had fewer lesions.
In the same press release Yukata Kondo indicates, in parallel with the fact that other research must be carried out:
The eradication of this bacterium by antibiotic treatment may be an approach to treat endometriosis in women who are positive for Fusobacteria infectionand these women could be easily identified by a vaginal swab or a uterine swab.