A study reveals that indole-3-propionic acid (IPA), a gut-derived molecule, can potentially treat influenza by lowering viral activity and inflammation in mice, with human trials anticipated to confirm these results. Researchers at the State University of Campinas in Brazil and the Pasteur Institute in Lille, France, conducted experiments on mice and discovered that administering a specific substance reduced both viral load and inflammation in animals infected with the influenza virus . According to a study published in the journal Gut Microbes , researchers from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo, Brazil, and Pasteur Institut in Lille, France, have found that a naturally occurring gut molecule can prevent and even treat influenza.
Experiments with mice showed a fall in levels of the molecule indole-3-propionic acid (IPA) during infection by influenza virus H3N2. The infected animals’ IPA was supplemented with a synthetic version of the molecule, after which viral load and lung inflammation were found to have decreased. “These results are promising and suggest that IPA may in future be used to help prevent or treat infections by the influenza virus, which causes major epidemics.
However, more research is needed to confirm the findings in humans and to understand how IPA works,” said Marco Vinolo, co-last author of the article and a professor at UNICAMP’s Institute of Biology (IB). The study was part of the project “Investigation of the molecul.