Olygose’s satiety ingredient CravingZ’Gone shows non-alcoholic fatty liver prevention effects

06 Nov 2017

06 Nov 2017 --- Olygose’s plant-based galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) product known as CravingZ’Gone has been demonstrated for the first time to prevent fatty liver development in a mouse model, according to the results of a preclinical trial.

A new peer-reviewed publication demonstrates that plant-based GOS (commercialized under brand name CravingZ’Gone by Olygose) can prevent the development of fatty liver and improve a number of metabolic parameters in mice. The study is published in a special issue of the journal Molecules on Bioactive Compounds for Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes.

“We have previously demonstrated that CravingZ’Gone can lower the levels of low-inflammation markers related to Metabolic Syndrome, such as LPS (LipoPolySaccharides) and CRP (C-Reactive Protein),” Marie Bellenger, Olygose Business Development Manager, tells NutritionInsight.

“These preliminary results on NAFL confirm CravingZ’Gone as being not only ‘weight management oriented,’ but having more global health effects,” Bellenger adds.

The study was initiated after very promising results were obtained in two clinical trials published in 2015 showing that the daily administration of CravingZ’Gone can improve satiety, weight management and metabolic endotoxemia in overweight adults. The authors of the publication hypothesized that the weight management effect of CravingZ’Gone would limit the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) when mice faced a metabolic challenge in the form of a high-fat diet.

NAFLD, the most common form of non-alcoholic fatty disease, is related to insulin-resistance, metabolic syndrome and high blood pressure. It is estimated to affect 80 percent of obese people and 10 to 20 percent of the worldwide population. When untreated it can lead to Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) and ultimately to liver carcinoma.

Beneficial effects

Olygose reports that the experiment was performed in collaboration with Biomeostasis (France), a leading Preclinical CRO that offers in vivo research services in the field of Metabolic & Gastrointestinal Disorders. In mice fed a high-fat diet, supplementation with CravingZ’Gone was found to be effective in improving fasting glycemia, blood lipids (total and LDL cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acids) and to limit the development of steatosis in the liver as well as improving its lipid profile.

“Long-term feeding of a high-fat diet in mice mimics the aetiology of metabolic disorders and liver steatosis in humans, which offers a reliable and valuable predictive tool for chronic efficacy studies aiming to investigate the preventive and/or curative effect of developing therapies targeting NAFLD,” confirms Julien Roux, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Biomeostasis.

One of the more interesting features of the study lies in the low dosage used in the experiment, Olygose notes. While most preclinical proof-of-concepts on the effects of prebiotics on fatty liver have been observed with high dosage (near 10 percent of food weight), CravingZ’Gone exhibited beneficial effects at a dosage that was 10 times lower.

“This is a very important finding as we generally find it difficult to extrapolate results from animals to humans, because doses used are too high in animals,” explains Eric Chappuis, Senior Nutrition Science Manager at Olygose. “Here we decided to translate the dosage that was found effective in humans (i.e 12 grams per day) to perform the experiment.”

“This suggests that we could probably observe interesting preventive effects towards NAFLD in humans with a low dose of CravingZ’Gone,” Chappuis notes. “This proof of concept clearly positions our ingredient as one of the key candidates to fight the global burden of NAFLD.”

“We are committed to ensuring a high scientific added value for each of our applications,” says François Delbaere, CEO of Olygose. “Our scientific portfolio on CravingZ’Gone was already quite impressive but here we went a step further by demonstrating global metabolic benefits.”

Olygose plant-based GOS are produced in France thanks to a proprietary technology resulting in very pure ingredients suitable for a number of applications in the field of foods, beverages and supplements. They are currently marketed in Europe and the US.

“CravingZ’Gone is currently used for its satietogenic effect. Beyond this, it may also target the prevention of metabolic diseases related to overweight and obesity,” Bellenger notes.

“CravingZ’Gone’s impact on long term satiety and weight management following a weight loss program is currently being evaluated in a large scale, multi-center clinical study,” Bellenger adds of future studies. “Results are expected by 2018.”