Therapeutic use of mucin glycans
View Patent ↗A therapeutic formulation containing mucin glycans derived from one or a number of nutritionally appropriate sources is described.
1. An infant formula supplement comprising:
(i) mammalian mucin glycans released and isolated from the protein component of mammalian mucins purified to comprise less than 10% by weight protein, which mucin glycans are a heterogenous mixture of linear and branched oligosaccharides from about 2 to about 10 saccharide subunits in length, that selectively stimulate growth of desirable gut microorganisms comprising Bacteroides species, wherein the mucin glycans upregulate a set of polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) in said Bacteroides species similar to those PULs upregulated in response to human milk oligosaccharides (HMO); and optionally (ii) at least one human milk oligosaccharide (HMO).
2. The therapeutic formulation of claim 1 , wherein the HMO has a structure distinct from mucin glycans.
3. The therapeutic formulation of claim 1 , wherein the HMO is lacto-N-neotetraose (LNnT) or lacto-N-tetraose (LNT).
4. The therapeutic formulation of claim 3 , wherein LNnT and/or LNT is present at a ratio of about 1:1-1:20 tetraose to mucin glycan.
5. The infant formula of claim 1 , wherein the mucin glycans are isolated from mammalian buccal and gastrointestinal mucins.
6. The infant formula supplement of claim 1 , wherein the supplement is a liquid form and the mucin glycans are present in a dose of at least about 0.1 g/liter.
7. The infant formula supplement of claim 1 wherein the supplement is in a dried form, and a unit dose of the mucin glycans is from about 0.1 g to about 25 g.