Seed Health has officially published clinical data on its flagship innovation, DS-01® Daily Synbiotic, at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2025.
According to certain reports, this randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial in healthy adults demonstrated that DS-01® increased production of two key microbial metabolites, with one of them being i.e. Urolithin A and butyrate, implicated in gut barrier function, metabolism, and healthy aging.
More on that would reveal how the stated trial also found reductions in C-Reactive Protein (CRP), which happens to be a widely used marker of systemic inflammation. These reductions tread up a long distance to showcase DS-01®’s potential in the context of influencing immune pathways.
The findings also emphasize DS-01®’s impact beyond microbial composition to demonstrate measurable biological function through microbiome-mediated metabolites’ production.
Talk about the whole exercise on a slightly deeper level, we begin from how Seed conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate DS-01® for its ability in increasing the production of Urolithin A, a microbiome-derived metabolite linked to mitochondrial function, cellular energy, metabolic health, intestinal barrier integrity, and healthy aging.
For better understanding, DS-01® provides the natural machinery to produce Urolithin A, delivering both a polyphenol precursor in its prebiotic outer capsule and key microbes in its probiotic inner capsule.
As for the findings here, they reveal rapid and sustained Urolithin A increase, showcasing DS-01®’s efficiency in increasing urinary Urolithin A levels by approximately 100-fold by Day 7 (P<0.0001), with levels sustained through Day 91.
Next up, the results showed 100% conversion to Urolithin A producers. In essence, by day 91, 100% of participants across the DS-01® arm became Urolithin A producers, compared to 44% in the placebo arm (P<0.01).
On top of it, the study also uncovered increased Lactobacillus spp. abundance. Here, researchers observed how DS-01® significantly increased the abundance of specific Lactobacillus species known to convert dietary polyphenols into Urolithin A precursors through Day 91 (P<0.001).
Seed Health also, in a separate effort, evaluated DS-01®’s impact on butyrate and CRP. In case you weren’t aware, butyrate is a key short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) produced by the gut microbiome, which fuels the cells that line the colon and supports immune function, gut barrier integrity, and metabolic signaling. On the other hand, CRP happens to be a systemic marker of inflammation.
Here, the results showed increased butyrate production. This translates to how synbiotic significantly increased fecal butyrate levels through Day 91 (P<0.03) in participants with low baseline butyrate levels. Furthermore, no change was observed throughout the placebo arm.
The stated trial also displayed reduction in a key systematic inflammatory marker, as the study spotted a reduction in CRP, a marker of systemic inflammation, associated with the colonization of DS-01® species through Day 91 (P<0.02).
Another detail worth a mention relates to enhanced microbiome diversity. Participants across the synbiotic arm showed significantly higher diversity of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus species at all time points compared to placebo through Day 91 (P<0.0001).
“This represents the first time a broad-spectrum synbiotic has been clinically shown to increase both Urolithin A and butyrate in humans,” said Zain Kassam, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Medical Officer at Seed Health. “DS-01® is delivering measurable biological impact via the microbiome—driving the production of key metabolites long studied for their roles in gut barrier integrity, inflammation, and healthy aging. These findings expand the biological relevance of DS-01® and point to new applications of microbiome-targeted innovations in advancing systemic health.”
