IBD tagged posts

Pathogenic Bacteria use a Sugar in the Intestinal Mucus Layer to Infect the Gut, study shows

The Citrobacter rodentium (orange) rely on sugars in the intestinal mucus layer (green).
Harmful gut bacteria like Citrobacter rodentium (orange) rely on sugars in the intestinal mucus layer (green).

A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and BC Children’s Hospital shows the sugar sialic acid, which makes up part of the protective intestinal mucus layer, fuels disease-causing bacteria in the gut.

The findings, published in PNAS, suggest a potential treatment target for intestinal bacterial infections and a range of chronic diseases linked to gut bacteria, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease, IBS and short bowel syndrome.

“Bacteria need to find a place in our intestines to take hold, establish and expand, and then they need to overcome all the different defenses that normally protect our gut,” says Dr...

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Molecular Component of Caffeine may play a Role in Gut Health

Molecular component of caffeine may play a role in gut health
Credit: Immunity (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.02.018

Brigham researchers studying how and why certain cell types proliferate in the gut found that xanthine, which is found in coffee, tea and chocolate, may play a role in Th17 differentiation. Insights may help investigators better understand gut health and the development of conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.

The gut is home to a cast of microbes that influence health and disease. Some types of microorganisms are thought to contribute to the development of inflammatory conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the exact cascade of events that leads from microbes to immune cells to disease remains mysterious.

A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital explores exactly what lead...

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Toxin-producing Yeast Strains in Gut Fuel IBD

Opportunistic “high-damaging” Candida albicans strain in the colon mucosa of IBD patient secretes the toxin candidalysin (red dots) during the transition from a benign commensal to a pathogenic state and aggravates intestinal inflammation. Credit: Shutterstock

Individual Candida albicans yeast strains in the human gut are as different from each other as the humans that carry them, and some C. albicans strains may damage the gut of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a new study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings suggest a possible way to tailor treatments to individual patients in the future.

The researchers, who report their findings March 16 in Nature, used an array of techniques to study strains, or genetic variants, of Candida f...

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People with IBD have more Microplastics in their Feces

Higher numbers of microplastics of various shapes, such as sheets (left) and fibers (right) were found in the feces of people with IBD than in healthy controls.
Credit: Adapted from Environmental Science & Technology 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c03924

Microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic less than 5 mm in length — are everywhere, from bottled water to food to air. According to recent estimates, people consume tens of thousands of these particles each year, with unknown health consequences. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology found that people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have more microplastics in their feces than healthy controls, suggesting that the fragments could be related to the disease process.

The prevalence of IBD, which includes ...

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