inflammatory bowel disease tagged posts

Researchers Discover New Bacterium that Causes Gut Immunodeficiency

Thaddeus Stappenbeck, M.D., Ph.D., (left) and Qiuhe Lu, Ph.D., in the lab.
Thaddeus Stappenbeck, M.D., Ph.D., (left) and Qiuhe Lu, Ph.D., in the lab.

Cleveland Clinic researchers have discovered a new bacterium that weakens the immune system in the gut, potentially contributing to certain inflammatory and infectious gut diseases.

The team identified the bacterium, Tomasiella immunophila (T. immunophila), which plays a key role in breaking down a crucial immune component of the gut’s multi-faceted protective immune barrier.

Identifying this bacterium is the first step to developing new treatments for a variety of inflammatory and infectious gut diseases...

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Helping ‘Good’ Gut Bacteria and Clearing out the ‘Bad’ – all in one treatment

An illustration of several rod-shaped bacteria.
Probiotic bacteria, like those illustrated here, could one day be delivered to the body on spherical microgels.
Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.com

Probiotics can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome or restore populations of “good bacteria” after a heavy course of antibiotics. But now, they could also be used as an effective treatment strategy for certain intestinal diseases, such as Crohn’s disease. Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed a microgel delivery system for probiotics that keeps “good” bacteria safe while actively clearing out “bad” ones. In mice, the system treated intestinal inflammation without side effects.

In the digestive system, there’s a delicate balance of bacterial populations...

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Western Diet may Increase Risk of Gut Inflammation, Infection

A tiny, 3D model of the intestines formed from anti-inflammatory cells known as Paneth cells (green and red) and other intestinal cells (blue) is seen in the image above. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Cleveland Clinic used such models, called organoids, to understand why a Western-style diet rich in fat and sugar damages Paneth cells and disrupts the gut immune system. (Image: Ta-Chiang Liu)

Diet rich in sugar, fat damages immune cells in digestive tracts of mice. Eating a Western diet impairs the immune system in the gut in ways that could increase risk of infection and inflammatory bowel disease, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Cleveland Clinic.

The study, in mice and peop...

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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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