This image is a mouse intestinal organoid, or “mini-gut,” used to study epithelial cell barrier function in ongoing inflammatory bowel disease and cancer studies. Photo courtesy of Coy Allen. Credit: Virginia Tech
Could inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer be prevented by changing the shape of a single protein? There is an intimate link between uncontrolled inflammation in the gut associated with inflammatory bowel disease and the eventual development of colon cancer. This uncontrolled inflammation is associated with changes in bacteria populations in the gut, which can invade the mucosal tissue after damage to the protective cellular barrier lining the tissue.
But Virginia Tech researchers found that modifying the shape of IRAK-M, a protein that controls inflammation, can significa...
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