Probiotic Intervention Study

Summary

The current standard of care for obesity is the optimal management of comorbid conditions such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia, and counseling on diet, weight loss, or increased physical activity programs. However, lifestyle, diet, and behavioral interventions may provide between 7-10% reduction in initial weight and even fewer with long-term weight loss. In severely obese patients (BMI\>40 or BMI\>35 with comorbidities), bariatric surgery is also a potential treatment, but there is a high barrier for patients to undergo surgery for weight loss. These barriers include an aversion to major abdominal surgery, long recovery time, potential risk of vitamin deficiency, and risk for abdominal pain. For these reasons, there is a paramount need for other treatments for obesity and for food addiction.

The current standard of care for obesity and food addiction is difficult to implement and lacks sustained efficacy. Most struggle to complete treatment, lose minimal weight, lack sustained weight loss, and engage in the well-known "YoYo" diet phenomenon. While bariatric surgery is currently the only effective treatment for obesity, there are several barriers associated with it such as eligibility requirements, invasiveness, difficult recovery, and cost making it not readily available for everyone. Some approved medications that help with obesity, such as orlistat, lorcaserin, or naltrexone-bupropion, have not been widely adopted by providers or patients due to their limited responses and adverse side effects. Probiotic cocktails have shown to be safe with little to no side effects. Preclinical models of probiotics demonstrate the ability to curb obesity in animal models. Therefore, a probiotic that is able to show significant weight loss along with lifestyle modifications would be highly adopted and desirable.

Conditions

• Obesity
• Food Addiction

Interventions

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Probiotic

Dietary Supplement taken once daily for 3 months (90 days).

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Placebo

Dietary Supplement taken once daily for 3 months (90days).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, Los Angeles

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Arpana Gupta, PhD · The Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles

• Tien Dong, MD, PhD · The Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-07-18

Primary Completion

2026-12-31

Completion

2027-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations