A major cause of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been discovered which could be treated with existing drugs.
The breakthrough was described as a “massive step forwards” by researchers.
IBD is the umbrella term for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and such conditions are becoming more prevalent.
As recently as 2022, more than 500,000 people in the UK were living with IBD – almost double the previous 300,000 estimate.
But despite the diseases being more common, existing treatments do not work in every patient and attempts to develop new drugs often fail because of a lack of understanding over what causes IBD.
The breakthrough came as researchers discovered a part of DNA only active in some immune cells which cause inflammation in bowels.
There are no drugs that specifically block this.
However, ones which are already prescribed for other non-inflammatory conditions were predicted to be effective.
In tests, experts at the Francis Crick Institute along with UCL and Imperial College London found the medication decreased inflammation in the immune cells and also in gut samples from IBD patients.
But there are side effects with this medication in other organs – and the researchers are now trying to work out how to deliver it directly to immune cells.
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