Hepcidin is an hyposideremic
hormone made primarily by the liver. To address the role of
hepcidin made specifically by the intestine in lowering serum iron, the inventors generated transgenic mice overexpressing the
peptide specifically in this tissue. These mice exhibit, at one month of age, a severe hyposideremia, along with decreased haematological indices and
hair loss. Mechanistically, they showed that intestinal
hepcidin made by the transgenic mice had no effect on intestinal
ferroportin, but, in contrast, induced a striking down-regulation of
Divalent Metal Transporter 1 (DMT1)
protein at the apical side of the
enterocyte. Intestinal
hepcidin can be produced in the apical side suggesting the direct role of apical hepcidin on DMT1. To confirm the therapeutic capacity of hepcidin on regulation of DMT1, the inventors developed probiotics (engineered recombinant
lactic acid bacteria), capable of delivering hepcidin directly into the lumen of the intestine. They orally administrated daily these probiotics in
hemochromatosis mice model, after 28 days of treatments they observe a decrease of iron overload. Thus, the present invention relates to a method for preventing or treating an iron overload associated
disease in a subject in need thereof, comprising administering locally in the gut of the subject hepcidin.