Developed through a long-standing collaboration between icddr,b and Washington University in St. Louis, MDCF-2 has shown promising results in improving growth and immune recovery among malnourished children. - The Daily Star/ANN
DHAKA: Microbiota-Directed Complementary Food (MDCF-2) is an affordable food formulation that repairs gut microbiomes to treat malnutrition, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr’b) said in a press release issued Thursday (Oct 9).
MDCF-2 contains a precise mix of chickpea flour, soybean flour, peanut flour and green banana. These ingredients were selected for their ability to nourish specific beneficial gut bacteria that support healthy growth, immune function and neurodevelopment in children affected by malnutrition.
Supported by the Gates Foundation, MDCF-2 has shown promising results in improving growth and immune recovery among malnourished children. Major studies are now underway in India, Pakistan, Mali and Tanzania, among others.
The idea was born from an exchange between Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, executive director of icddr,b, and Dr Jeffrey Gordon, director of the Edison Family Centre for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, US. The collaboration merged Dr Ahmed’s decades of work addressing malnutrition in Bangladesh with Dr Gordon’s pioneering research on the human gut microbiome.
Despite progress in recent decades, undernutrition remains a major threat to child survival and development worldwide, contributing to nearly half of all under-five deaths. The global burden is being worsened by wars, displacement and natural disasters, leaving millions of children at risk of stunting and wasting.
“This recognition is deeply encouraging,” said Dr Tahmeed. “It shows how science and compassion can come together to solve one of the most persistent global health challenges. MDCF-2 gives us new hope that locally developed, affordable solutions can help millions of undernourished children not only survive but thrive,” he said.
“The next step is to get the treatment to ‘larger populations of children…where acute malnutrition is rampant,” Time’s quoted Gordon as saying. - The Daily Star/ANN
