June 6, 2024 – Scientists in the United Kingdom have pinpointed genetic factors that appear to drive inflammatory bowel disease, and laboratory experiments using existing drugs used for other conditions show the medicines may be effective treatments.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is the collective name for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, both of which cause chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms of IBD include persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, or bloody stools, as well as weight loss and fatigue. About 1 in 100 adults in the U.S. have IBD.
The new research highlights an important genetic pathway that is driven by what scientists call a gene enhancer named ETS2, which is present in 95% of people with IBD. The researchers found that these genetic factors boosted damaging inflammation levels in tissue taken from people with IBD.
The findings, published this week in the journal Nature, are based on lab experiments and would need to be replicated through further study. In a second part of their experiments, the researchers examined the effects of a group of drugs known to regulate ETS2 in other non-inflammatory conditions. The lab experiments showed that the MEK inhibitors could reduce inflammatory activity in experiments at both the cellular level and in gut samples from people with IBD.
"Crohn's and colitis are complex, lifelong conditions for which there is no cure, but research like this is helping us to answer some of the big questions about what causes them. The more we can understand about inflammatory bowel disease, the more likely we are to be able to help patients live well with these conditions,” said Ruth Wakeman, Director of Services, Advocacy and Evidence at Crohn's & Colitis UK, in a statement. “This research is a really exciting step towards the possibility of a world free from Crohn's and colitis one day."