Research: Local immune response to food antigens drives meal-induced abdominal pain

[Meleber]

Abstract

"Up to 20% of the global population develops gastrointestinal symptoms following a meal1, leading to decreased quality of life, significant morbidity and high medical costs. Although the interest of both the scientific and lay community has increased dramatically with the worldwide introduction of gluten-free and other diets, the underlying mechanisms leading to food-induced abdominal complaints remain largely unknown. Here we show that a bacterial infection and bacterial toxins can trigger an immune response leading to the production of dietary antigen-specific IgE antibodies in mice, a mechanism confined to the intestine. Subsequent oral ingestion of the respective dietary antigen results in increased visceral pain via an IgE- and mast cell-dependent mechanism. This aberrant pain signaling results from histamine receptor H1 (H1R)-mediated sensitization of visceral afferents. Moreover, in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), we show that injection of food antigens (gluten, wheat, soy and milk) into the rectosigmoid induces local edema and mast cell activation. Hence, we have unveiled and characterized a novel peripheral mechanism underlying food-induced abdominal pain, which creates new opportunities for the treatment of IBS and related abdominal pain disorders."

Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[xjrs]

Thanks for this.

I've seen this kind of research before with the same findings. I hope they're not just repeating and finding out information that has already been found by someone else. There is a lack of central repository of research into IBS, to avoid duplication of effort or anyone centrally managing research to ensure that there are outcomes for patients.

There seems to be a hamster wheel of funding towards what appears to be keeping researchers in jobs. I hope I'm wrong. You never get a commitment at the end of the paper to explore these areas further so that a final conclusion is reached that leads to clinical trials and treatments.

There needs to be a complete overhaul of the research system, not just for IBS, but also all incurable diseases of which there are many. I believe there is a lot of waste going on and no real drive by anyone to push things forward.