Medical probiotic for Type 2 diabetes? Pendulum launches synbiotic for insulin management

05 Jun 2020 --- Supplement company Pendulum Therapeutics has launched a medical probiotic called Pendulum Glucose Control that can help manage Type 2 diabetes. The company affirms that the product’s specific bacterial strains can help metabolize fiber into butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that is key to modulating insulin. The microbiome-targeted solution provides a novel avenue in diabetes management, as gut health and immunity have increasingly become spotlighted throughout industry.

“We are taking a new approach to managing Type 2 diabetes through the gut microbiome with the launch of Pendulum Glucose Control. It’s the first and only medical probiotic clinically shown to lower A1C and blood sugar spikes,” Dr. Colleen Cutcliffe, Pendulum Co-Founder and CEO, tells NutritionInsight. A1C is a form of hemoglobin that is chemically linked to a sugar and is often indicative of diabetes.

Key benefits of Pendulum Glucose Control include managing healthy glucose levels and unlocking fiber potential to produce beneficial molecules that energize cells in the colon. Moreover, the product assists in strengthening gut lining to help prevent harmful bacteria from causing gut inflammation. 

 Pendulum identifed bacterial strains that were high in healthy people and low or entirely missing in people with Type 2 diabetes.By supporting butyrate production, the naturally occurring metabolite that is lost in people with Type 2 diabetes, Pendulum Glucose Control helps maintain insulin and glucose balance, according to Dr. Cutcliffe.

“The connection between our gut microbiome and immune system has received increased attention lately with the global pandemic. COVID-19 primarily affects the respiratory system. However, our gut microbiome may play a key role in how our body – and ultimately, our immune system – reacts to the virus. For people with Type 2 diabetes, a healthy immune system is especially important during this time,” Dr. Cutcliffe clarifies.

In related developments, Public Health England (PHE) released a data review that found that among deaths with COVID-19 mentioned on death certificates, a higher percentage specifies diabetes than all-cause death certificates. 

A “unique blend of novel probiotics”
Using a high resolution microbiome discovery platform, Pendulum Therapeutics was able to identify bacterial strains and their associated functions that were high in healthy people and low or entirely missing in people with Type 2 diabetes. 

The company’s patented formulation is a synbiotic that contains Clostridium beijerinckii WB-STR-0005, Clostridium butyricum WB-STR-0006, Akkermansia muciniphila WB-STR-0001, Eubacterium hallii WB-STR-0008 and Bifidobacterium infantis 100. “Aside from our probiotic strains, we have also included a prebiotic – chicory inulin – to help feed the probiotic strains,” Dr. Cutcliffe adds. 

“We believe sharing Pendulum Glucose Control with consumers now offers a new microbiome-targeted solution to those struggling during this time of uncertainty in regards to their health and well-being,” she states. As Pendulum is reinventing and redefining how people manage specific chronic illnesses and diseases, its target audience consists of individuals with Type 2 diabetes but also prediabetes.

Medical food should be taken under the supervision of a physician.Medical food spotlighted
The company stresses that its newest launch is a medical food that should be taken under the supervision of a physician. “However, we developed the term ‘medical probiotic’ as a new class of probiotics that deliver clinical efficacy for the management of a specific disease or condition with targeted and novel probiotic strains,” Dr. Cutcliffe affirms.

“The probiotic strains in a medical probiotic have been fully DNA-sequenced to determine the microbial function for modulating the microbiome of a particular disease. Unlike ‘off-the-shelf’ probiotics with general ‘gut health’ claims, medical probiotics provide clinical rigor to substantiate a dietary management claim,” she details.

The nutrition industry has been making significant moves in the field of medical food. Last September, functional foods company SternLife developed a portfolio of nutritionally complete medical foods to tackle malnourishment and dysphagia. BASF is also positioning its Prebilac 2’-FL for medical food usage beyond infant nutrition in dietary supplements, while a joint venture between specialty pharmaceutical company Tenshi Kaizen Private and US-based DolCas Biotech, LLC also aims to explore the medical food space. 

By Anni Schleicher

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