LONDON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- British scientists have found a new way for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

    Scientists at the Leeds University have adapted a bacteria in the body to make it produce a treatment for IBD by using sugar to "witch" the bacteria on and off, the science news website Alpha Galileo reported Monday.

    According to the new research led by Simon Carding of Leeds' faculty of biological science, a spoonful of sugar will be all a patient needs for his/her body to make its own medicine.

    By eating the sugar, a patient will set the medicine to work and then can end the treatment simply by stopping consumption of the sugar.

    Bacteria and virus have been used before to deliver drugs, but the delivery systems produce their drugs non-stop, and for many treatments there is a narrow concentration range at which drugs are beneficial, and the treatment can be counterproductive and make the condition worse, according to the researchers.

    "It's vitally important to be able to control when and how much of the drug is administered and we believe our discovery will provide that control," Carding was quoted as saying, who led the research.

    The researchers have modified one of the trillions of bacteria in the human gut so that it will produce human growth factors which help repair the layer of cells lining the colon, so reducing inflammation caused by IBD.

    The scientists have also adapted the bacteria so it only activates in the presence of a plant sugar called xylan which is found in tree bark and naturally present in food in low concentrations, so by taking it in higher quantities, a patient will be able to produce his/her own medicine as and when he/she needs it.

    "The human gut has a huge number of bacteria, and this treatment simply adapts what's there naturally to treat the disease. We are already looking at using the same technique for colorectal cancer, as we believe we could modify the bacteria to produce factors that will reduce tumor growth. Treatment of diseases elsewhere in the body might also be possible as most things present in the gut can get taken into the blood stream," Carding said.

    The technique has been shown to work in vitro, but the researchers will be testing the treatment over the next twelve months in preparation for clinical trials, the report said, adding the discovery has been patented.