In France, 300,000 patients suffer from chronic inflammatory bowel disease (MIC). Symptoms of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are often abdominal pain and diarrhea. To treat them, we use anti-inflammatories or targeted antibodies.
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These therapies reduce inflammation in one in two patients, explains Achille Broggi, researcher at the Marseille-Luminy Immunology Center (CNRS, Inserm and Aix-Marseille University). But for many patients, injuries to the intestinal wall are poorly repaired.
This wall plays an important role. Nutrients pass through it and it blocks access to viruses and harmful bacteria.
A useful but harmful protein
To fight viruses in the intestinal lining, the body produces a protein called interferon lambda. It is very useful to us. But we discovered that this protein is also responsible, in people who have IBD, for the death of the cells lining the intestine.
continues the biologist. Interferon lambda reveals an unexpected negative side: it prevents intestinal wounds from closing!
These heal if we block interferon. How to do it? This is possible with specific antibodies.
But so that the patient does not contract infections, it would also be necessary leave the antiviral function of interferons intact
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Published in Cell, a very high-level scientific journal, this discovery is based on the study of cells from mice and patients. It opens a therapeutic avenue. Once these mechanisms are discovered, other scientists will take over until the design of drugs.
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