Crohn’s disease tagged posts

Rebalancing the Gut: How AI Solved a 25-Year Crohn’s Disease Mystery

Graphic of macrophages
Electron micrographs show how macrophages expressing girdin neutralize pathogens by fusing phagosomes (P) with the cell’s lysosomes (L) to form phagolysosomes (PL), compartments where pathogens and cellular debris are broken down (left). This process is crucial for maintaining cellular homeostasis. In the absence of girdin, this fusion fails, allowing pathogens to evade degradation and escape neutralization (right). (UC San Diego Health Sciences)

AI uncovers how a severed bond between two gut proteins sparks Crohn’s disease, and how restoring it could heal inflammation. UC San Diego researchers combined artificial intelligence with molecular biology to unravel how immune cells in the gut decide between inflammation and healing, a process gone awry in Crohn’s disease...

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New Potential Therapy for Crohn’s disease in Children

High magnification micrograph of Crohn’s disease. Biopsy of esophagus. H&E stain. Credit: Nephron/Wikipedia

Scientists from the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago demonstrated that a nanotherapy reduces intestinal inflammation and shrinks lesions in a rodent model of severe Crohn’s disease. This approach could become an alternative to biologic antibody therapies that carry many side effects, including increased risk of certain cancers. It might also prevent the need for surgery in the future. Findings were published in the journal Advanced Therapeutics.

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, most often in the small intestine...

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Evidence found of Oral Bacteria contributing to Bowel Disorders

oral

Koji Atarashi et al. Ectopic colonization of oral bacteria in the intestine drives TH1 cell induction and inflammation, Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aan4526 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

An international team has found evidence that suggests certain types of oral bacteria may cause or exacerbate bowel disorders. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes testing the impact of introducing bacteria found in the mouths of humans to mice models. Xuetao Cao with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences offers a Perspective piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue and suggests that the work might one day lead to the development of new kinds of treatments for common bowel disorders.

Bowel disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, ulcerative ...

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Bacteria links Crohn’s Disease to Arthritis

Crohn's disease bacteria drives arthritis. E. coli bacteria (red), which are abundant in the immunoglobulin-A-coated microbiota of patients with a Crohn's disease-associated condition called spondyloarthritis, promote systemic inflammation. The blue circular structures depict the nuclei of cells called epithelial cells. All images: Dr. Kenneth Simpson, Cornell University.

Crohn’s disease bacteria drives arthritis. E. coli bacteria (red), which are abundant in the immunoglobulin-A-coated microbiota of patients with a Crohn’s disease-associated condition called spondyloarthritis, promote systemic inflammation. The blue circular structures depict the nuclei of cells called epithelial cells. All images: Dr. Kenneth Simpson, Cornell University.

Patients with Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes abdominal pain and diarrhea, can also experience joint pain. In Crohn’s disease, which affects about 800,000 Americans, the immune system can attack not only the bowels, but the musculoskeletal system as well, leading to spondyloarthritis, a painful condition that affects the spine and joints. Now new research, published Feb...

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