The study, published in Gut, found that the carbon beads were effective in restoring gut health and had a positive impact on liver, kidney and brain function in rats and mice. They were also found to be safe for human use.

"When the balance of the microbiome is upset, 'bad' bacteria can proliferate and out-compete the 'good' bacteria that keeps the gut healthy," explained senior author Professor Rajiv Jalan from the UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health.

By excreting endotoxin and other toxic metabolites, they transform the gut environment to make it more favorable for them—and hostile to good bacteria—which triggers gut inflammation, and leakiness in the gut wall, resulting in damage to other organs such as the liver, kidneys and brain.

In cirrhosis, a condition characterized by scarring of the liver in 100 million people currently worldwide, inflammation caused by endotoxins can exacerbate the liver damage. A standard treatment for cirrhosis is antibiotics aimed at controlling bad bacteria, but this comes with the risk of antibiotic resistance and is only used in late-stage disease.

To overcome this, scientists at UCL developed the tiny oral carbon beads, which have a special microscopic physical structure designed to adsorb both large and small molecules in the gut.

In the study, researchers tested the effectiveness of the carbon beads (known by the product name CARBALIVE) and assessed the impact on liver, kidney and brain function in rats and mice.

They found that when ingested every day for several weeks, the beads were effective in preventing the progress of liver scarring and injury in animals with cirrhosis, and they reduced mortality in animals with acute-on-chronic-liver-failure.