A team of scientists in the United Kingdom have discovered a major cause of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) which affects millions of people across the globe.
According to a report by the BBC, scientists found a weak spot in human DNA that is present in 95 per cent of people with the disease, making it easier for some immune cells to crank up the amount of proteins they make, resulting in inflammation in the bowels.
The team of scientists, in their research, have also found drugs that already exist and can reverse the disease. The aim now is to start the human trials of the drug.
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease and start from a young age.
According to medical research, one part of the immune system that is highly implicated in IBD is white blood cells called macrophages. These flood the linings of the intestines where they release chemicals– called cytokines– causing massive inflammation.
Inflammation is part of the body’s normal response to infection, but too much for too long can have devastating health consequences such as inflammation.
In the research, the team of scientists at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London performed deep genetic analysis to try to unpick the cause of IBD.
They discovered a section of genetic code–or DNA– that turned out to be the macrophage’s “master regulator” of inflammation.
It sits right at “the top of the pyramid,” said Dr James Lee of the Francis Crick Institute, as per the BBC.
The gene controls the suite of inflammatory chemicals the macrophages release, and some people are born with a version that makes their body prone to responding excessively.
“This is undoubtedly one of the central pathways that goes wrong for people to get inflammatory bowel disease,” Dr Lee told the BBC.
“It is the process by which one of the most important cells that causes inflammatory bowel disease goes wrong,” he added.
On being asked about the treatment of IBD, she said, “We found not only how and why it goes wrong, but potentially a new way of treating these diseases.”
Yet, there is not going to be a new IBD treatment imminently.
The researchers have a head start as drugs already exist, but they need to find a way of targeting just the macrophages so they do not cause side effects throughout the body.
The drugs would also need to be precisely calibrated to calm the IBD, but not leave a patient susceptible to infection by switching off the good side of inflammation in fighting the disease.
The aim is to start clinical trials within five years.
“This research is a really exciting step towards the possibility of a world free from Crohn’s and colitis one day,” Ruth Wakeman, from the charity Crohn’s & Colitis UK said to the BBC.
“Crohn’s and colitis are complex, lifelong conditions for which there is no cure, but research like this is helping us to answer some of the big questions about what causes them,” she added.
Source Agencies
