IBD tagged posts

In a scientific breakthrough, Mount Sinai researchers have revealed the biological mechanisms by which a family of proteins known as histone deacetylases (HDACs) activate immune system cells linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other inflammatory diseases.

This discovery, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could potentially lead to the development of selective HDAC inhibitors designed to treat types of IBD such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

“Our understanding of the specific function of class II HDACs in different cell types has been limited, impeding development of therapies targeting this promising drug target family,” says senior author Ming-Ming Zhou, PhD, Dr...

Serial home tests would reduce unnecessary colonoscopy testing. Patients with suspected inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) could benefit from better testing protocols that would reduce the need and lengthy wait for potentially unnecessary colonoscopies, a new study has found.

In a paper published in Frontline Gastroenterology, researchers from the Birmingham NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at the University of Birmingham tested a new protocol to improve IBD diagnosis combining clinical history with multiple home stool tests.

In the two-year study involving 767 participants, patients were triaged and had repeated faecal calprotectin (FCP) tests and the research team found that the use of serial FCP tests were able to strongly predict possible IBD as well as Crohn’s Disease an...

Anti-inflammatory nanoparticles mimic glycocalyx. Chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is on the rise worldwide. The benefits of current medications are limited by problematic side effects. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a South Korean research team has now introduced a new method of treatment. It is based on nanoparticles that mimic a special carbohydrate layer (glycocalyx) located on inflamed bowel cells, and which trigger anti-inflammatory effects in the diseased sites in the intestine.

Stomach cramps and severe diarrhea, often accompanied by significant weight loss, are some o...

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...