Cholera can quickly become life-threatening, but the best defense might be sitting in your pantry.
New research from UC Riverside in Southern California reveals that a high-protein diet can effectively "disarm" the bacteria, slash infection levels by 100-fold, and stop the disease in its tracks before it turns fatal.
Published in the journal Cell Host and Microbe, the study found that diets rich in casein, the main protein in milk and cheese, along with wheat gluten, could limit cholera bacteria in the gut.
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Cholera is a bacterial disease spread through contaminated water and food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease can cause severe diarrhea, dehydration and even death if it goes untreated.
The research team aimed to determine whether harmful bacteria would respond to dietary changes in the same way as other bacteria.
They began by feeding infected mice different foods. Some mice ate high-protein diets, while others ate food high in simple carbohydrates. Others were fed high-fat diets, according to the study's press release.
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"The high-protein diet had one of the strongest anti-cholera effects compared to a balanced diet - and not all proteins are the same," said Ansel Hsiao, UCR associate professor and senior author of the study, in the release. "Casein and wheat gluten were the two clear winners."
Hsiao said he was surprised by the magnitude of the effect. "We saw up to 100-fold differences in the amount of cholera colonization as a function of diet alone," he noted.
The secret lies in the bacteria's design, the researchers discovered. Cholera uses a microscopic, syringe-like structure to inject toxins into and kill "good" microbes in the gut.
In the study, casein and gluten effectively jammed this "syringe." Without its primary weapon, cholera wasn't able to compete.
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The World Health Organization has emphasized that while cholera is preventable and treatable, a global surge in cases has strained the supply of oral cholera vaccines and heightened the need for diversified treatment strategies.
Overreliance on antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant "superbugs." While cholera hasn't yet reached that crisis point, the bacteria's ability to adapt means current medications could eventually become useless, experts warn.
"Dietary strategies won't generate antibiotic resistance in the same way a drug might," Hsiao noted.
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This means food-based prevention could offer a safer, cheaper and more sustainable weapon for vulnerable communities.
"Wheat gluten and casein are recognized as safe in a way a microbe is not, in a regulatory sense, so this is an easier way to protect public health," Hsiao said.
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The next step, according to the researchers, is to explore the effect of these proteins in humans, given that the major limitation of this study is that it only shows cholera effects in mice.
Because the study is preclinical and there is not yet data on human subjects, Hsiao and his team don't know how much casein or wheat gluten a person would need to consume to see a protective effect.
They would also need to test whether the protein must be consumed before exposure to cholera as a preventative measure, or if it can effectively "shut down" an active, mid-stage infection.
"The more we can improve people's diets, the more we may be able to protect them from succumbing to disease," Hsiao added.
