Design Document for Oral Targeted Microcapsules of Engineered Yeast for Degradation of Microplastics in the Human Body
1. Abstract
Microplastic pollution has become a global health crisis. Humans consume approximately 5 grams of microplastics per week through diet and breathing, equivalent to the weight of a credit card. These microplastics accumulate in the body, especially in the intestines, potentially causing intestinal flora imbalance, chronic inflammation, and various health risks. Currently, there is no effective means globally that can actively and safely remove microplastics from the body.
This project, "Enteroplastivore", is the first oral live biological therapeutic agent developed using synthetic biology technology. We have constructed an engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae that can efficiently secrete enzymes for degrading microplastics and simultaneously express anti-inflammatory factors. Through freeze-dried yeast powder technology and alginate microcapsule encapsulation process, we successfully created an in-body "microplastic scavenger" that can target the intestines, colonize and multiply, and work continuously. This product aims to completely degrade the ingested microplastics into harmless small molecules and excrete them from the body, while repairing the intestinal barrier and inhibiting inflammatory responses, providing a new and active biomedical solution for addressing the issue of microplastic exposure in the human body.
2. Project background and problem statement
Recent studies have confirmed that microplastics have been widely present in human blood, placenta, liver, and even the brain. The intestine, as the main pathway and accumulation site for microplastics to enter the human body, is the first to be affected in terms of health. Microplastics in the intestine may damage the physical barrier, induce chronic inflammation, and disrupt the intestinal microecology.
Currently, there is no product on the market that can actively degrade the existing microplastics in the human body. Traditional detox teas, adsorbents, or conventional probiotics can only indirectly assist in metabolism by promoting intestinal peristalsis or regulating the flora, and cannot specifically solve the catalytic degradation problem of this chemically inert pollutant. The birth of "Enteroplastivore" is precisely to fill this huge market gap and technological vacuum, revolutionizing the "battlefield" of environmental restoration and extending it to the human body, achieving a leap from "passive defense" to "active removal".
3. Product Overview and Design concept
3.1 Product orientation
A daily dietary supplement designed for people at high risk of microplastic exposure and health-conscious individuals (which can later be registered as a special medical purpose formula food).
3.2 Core Design Philosophy
The design of this product adheres to four core principles: "Targeted Delivery, Efficient Removal, Synergistic Repair, and Absolute Safety":
(1) Targeted Delivery: Ensures that the active ingredients of the product can precisely reach and colonize the targeted area in the intestinal tract.
(2) Efficient Removal: The core function is to actively degrade microplastics through enzymatic reactions, rather than physical adsorption.
(3) Synergistic Repair: While removing the foreign substances, it actively repairs the physical and immune damage caused by microplastics.
(4) Absolute Safety: Utilizes recognizedly safe base cells and multiple biological protection designs to ensure the long-term safety of oral administration.
Fig 1. The core design philosophy of our product
4. Product structure and technical principles
This product is a precise layered structure system from the molecular level to the macroscopic level, as shown below:
4.1 Freeze-dried yeast powder
After centrifugation and collection of the highly dense fermentation-cultured engineered yeast, it is mixed with proprietary freeze-drying protectants (such as trehalose, skimmed milk powder), and undergoes vacuum freeze-drying. This process converts highly active yeast cells into metabolically dormant but structurally intact freeze-dried yeast powder. This enables the product to maintain stability at room temperature for a long time, greatly facilitating storage, transportation, and sales. After oral administration, in the moist and warm environment of the intestine and with the supply of nutrients, the yeast can rapidly "revive" and restore all physiological functions.
4.2 Sodium alginate microcapsules
Using the gentle pore-filling - coagulation bath method, the freeze-dried yeast powder is encapsulated in sodium alginate microcapsules.
This structure is the key to achieving oral and intestinal targeting:
Gastric acid protection barrier: The outer shell of the sodium alginate microcapsules can effectively resist the strong acidity of gastric juice (pH ~2.0), protecting the fragile freeze-dried yeast inside from being inactivated, ensuring a sufficient number of viable cells (>10^8 CFU/dose) safely reaching the intestine.
Intestinal targeting controlled release: Sodium alginate is a natural polysaccharide that can undergo depolymerization and gradual degradation under the weak alkaline environment of the intestine and the action of specific enzymes produced by intestinal bacteria. This property enables the microcapsules to achieve targeted, slow release in the intestine - the area where microplastics are mainly accumulated and retained - maximizing degradation efficiency.
Initial colonization controller: The physical binding effect of the microcapsules provides a protective ecological niche for the initial colonization of engineered bacteria and initially controls their reproduction rate.
4.3 Final formulation (oral capsule)
To facilitate administration and precise quantification, a certain amount of microcapsule particles (such as 500mg) are filled into standard plant-based hollow capsules, forming the final oral capsule formulation.
Fig 2. Our product structure
5. Competitive Analysis
High-risk occupational groups: Workers in the plastic products manufacturing, recycling, and textile industries.
Specific dietary habits: People who rely on bottled water, take-away food, and seafood for a long time.
Intestinal sensitivity and health concerns: Consumers with intestinal problems such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or chronic inflammation, who wish to actively reduce the toxin load in their bodies.
Preventive health care groups: Ordinary people who pursue long-term health investment and wish to actively respond to environmental health threats.
Fig 3. The target population of our product.
6. Product advantages and market prospects
6.1 Core advantages:
(1) Innovative empowerment mechanism: The first product with "active biodegradation" of microplastics in the body, with a highly disruptive technical principle.
(2) Dual efficacy synergy: Combining "physical removal" and "immune repair", addressing both symptoms and root causes.
(3) Precise intestinal targeting: A four-level delivery system (capsule shell - microcapsule - probiotic powder - engineered bacteria) ensures efficient and precise delivery.
(4) Extremely high safety: Based on GRAS-level microorganisms and integrating multiple biological protection strategies, it is safe and controllable.
(5) High user compliance: As a daily dietary supplement, it is easy to integrate into daily life.
6.2 Market Outlook:
The global health market, particularly in the areas of intestinal health, detoxification, and probiotics, has reached a scale of hundreds of billions of dollars. With the rapid increase in public awareness of the health hazards of microplastics, "Enteroplastivore" as a disruptive product with clear scientific mechanisms and targets, will open up a brand-new "internal environmental protection" niche market, with huge commercial potential. In the initial stage, we position it as a high-end dietary supplement, reaching consumers directly through online science popularization and e-commerce. In the later stage, after accumulating sufficient clinical data, it can be expanded into the fields of medical food and even over-the-counter drugs.
6.3 Safety considerations:
This is the core of oral gene-engineered biological products. We have designed multiple layers of "safety switches":
Chassis organism safety: Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a fermentation yeast and probiotic that has been used by humans for thousands of years and has an excellent safety record.
Gene manipulation safety:
An arabinose-inducible "suicide switch" is introduced to make the survival of engineered yeast controllable. At the same time, once Saccharomyces cerevisiae is excreted with feces, it will rapidly die, completely eliminating the risk of environmental leakage.
7. Summary and Outlook
"Enteroplastivore" is a landmark application of synthetic biology moving from the environmental field to the precise health field. It is not merely a product; it represents a completely new paradigm of health management: by utilizing the "micro-factories" within our bodies, it actively and precisely eliminates the internal pollution brought about by the industrial age.
Future Outlook:
Intelligent Sensing: Develop "intelligent yeast" that can sense the concentration of microplastics or inflammatory signals and automatically initiate corresponding programs, achieving precise self-regulation.
Function Expansion: Explore integrating more beneficial functions into the yeast, such as secreting vitamins, adsorbing and eliminating heavy metals, etc., to create the next generation of "all-round" intestinal guardians.
Fig 4. The future outlook
