Antibiotic growth promotion—without the antibiotics. Here’s how it works:
Nutrivert is developing a non-antibiotic that can deliver the growth effect of antibiotics in livestock.
Nutrivert LDPP is an orally available, synthetic analog of the universally conserved bacterial cell wall component muramyl dipeptide (MDP). To understand how it works, we must first understand how antibiotics work.
Antibiotics interfere with bacterial cell wall synthesis or break down bacterial cell walls by killing the bacterium. MDP is a universal component of those bacterial cell walls. When the bacterial cell walls break down, MDP is released and it then binds to the NOD2 receptor, enhancing growth.
This growth promotion effect of antibiotics does not actually require antibiotic activity. With antibiotic growth promoters, it’s MDP, released by antibiotics, that does the real work.
Nutrivert developed LDPP, a synthetic analog of MDP. LDPP has no antibiotic activity, but works the same way as antibiotic-induced MDP to promote growth. But there’s a difference. Unlike MDP, which induces NF-κB, promoting inflammation, LDPP reduces NF-κB. In animals treated with LDPP, reduction in NF-κB is associated with enhanced growth and reduced inflammation during infectious disease challenge.
Additionally, LDPP is substantially easier and less expensive to produce, compared with MDP.
The Potential Human Health Benefits
Respiratory viruses cause important diseases, including COVID-19, flu, RSV, and colds.
LDPP has been shown to protect pigs against two different respiratory viral diseases. One is porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). The other is influenza. People can’t get PRRSV, but they can get flu.
Early studies suggest LDPP may work by restraining excessive inflammation, by boosting a natural antiviral compound known as interferon-beta (IFN-β), and by improving clearance of virus.
