DEFINING IMMUNE PATHWAYS DRIVING GUT INFLAMMATION

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  DEFINING IMMUNE PATHWAYS DRIVING GUT INFLAMMATION

• IRAS ID

  190309

• Contact name

  Peter Irving

• Contact email

  peter.irving@gstt.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  King's College London

• Duration of Study in the UK

  3 years, 10 months, 20 days

• Research summary

  A number of chronic conditions have been associated with gut inflammation, including coeliac, inflammatory bowel diseases- IBD (ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease), metabolic disorders (obesity, diabetes), chronic liver conditions (including autoimmune diseases and non alcoholic fatty liver disease) and graft versus host disease (GvHD, a complication of bone marrow transplantation). Current thinking suggests that it is the cross interaction of ones immune system with environmental triggers (e.g food, bacteria) that leads to gut damage for most conditions while in GvHD the immune cells of the donor do not only attack the cancerous cells of the recipient but also healthy tissues leading to further damage.
  Despite the recent advantages in the understanding of genetics and the inherited predisposition to chronic conditions associated to gut inflammation the mechanisms behind gut damage remain elusive for most of the above diseases. This limited understanding is reflected also in the few therapeutic options available for these conditions. Main barriers up to now in major breakthroughs have been limited access to patient data and samples while hypotheses testing has been limited previously by available technology.
  The development of cutting edge high throughput techniques in experimental immunology though have provided researchers with the unique opportunity to dissect in unprecedented detail the components of the inflammatory response in animal models of disease.
  With this study we propose to use these techniques to define in more detail the different pathways driving gut inflammation by testing samples (including blood, gut biopsies, stool) taken in the context of routine clinical practice from patients with variable diseases characterized by gut damage/ inflammation and identify common pathways that may be amenable to therapeutic targeting

• REC name

  London - Dulwich Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/LO/1998

• Date of REC Opinion

  1 Feb 2016

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion