The Role of a Novel, Peptide Mediated Immune RegulatorP Pathway in the Pathogenesis of IBD.

Inflammatory bowel disease is a debilitating chronic disease associated with inappropriate accumulation of white blood cells in the bowel. This causes tissue damage and is associated with pain, diarrhea, tiredness and weight loss. There are some effective drugs available that reduce the inflammation, but many patients will not respond to therapy. We have identified a protein that is responsible for regulating the movement of blood cells into the bowel to cause inflammation. In non-injured individuals the process of inflammation is well controlled, but in patients with IBD loss of function of our protein means that inflammation gets dysregulated and causes tissue damage. We want to test blood from patients with IBD to understand how components of this regulatory pathway are altered, and more importantly to use human cells and mouse models to test whether administration of compounds that recreate the missing pathway can resolve the inflammation and help heal the damaged bowels in patients.