Pannexins and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

[TeresaPro]

Sharkey said while scientists have long known that inflammatory bowel disease is characterized by the damage or death of neurons within a patient’s gut, they have not known the cause. What the researchers discovered is the mechanism through which that cell death happens, aided by proteins called “pannexins.” They also discovered that when drugs are used to block the pannexins, cell death in the gastrointestinal tract can be prevented.

The research, which took two years to complete, was tested on lab mice suffering from chemically induced “colitis.”

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health...through+Inflammatory+Bowel/6321398/story.html
:soledance:

 

[David]

Thank you for sharing this Teresa I hope you don't mind but I changed the thread title to share what the article is about and edited in a little blurb as well.

 

[Mark in Seattle]

I read another abbreviated version of this article somewhere, maybe an abstract on pubmed or whatever. The one I read didn't make quite as much sense as this article.

I find it interesting & kind of surprising that this article states, "...while scientists have long known that inflammatory bowel disease is characterized by the damage or death of neurons within a patient’s gut, they have not known the cause."

This is the first I've ever heard of neuronal death within the gut. Being a layman, I don't understand the significance of neuronal death in the gut or what would happen if a drug could be created to stop the neuronal death. How does that fix up IBD?