Key Regulator of Intestinal Homeostasis Identified

SP140, an epigenetic reader protein mutated in a number of autoimmune disorders, is essential for macrophage function and preventing intestinal inflammation, scientists show. 

Read more: Key Regulator of Intestinal Homeostasis Identified

Artist's rendition of a macrophage in the gut and epigenome (green balls are the basic units of chromatin,
with nucleosomes wrapped twice around an octamer of a histone)

Researchers are only beginning to understand the roles of the hundreds of proteins involved in reading, writing, and erasing the epigenome. One of the epigenetic regulators, SP140, which is mutated in a number autoimmune disorders, including Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis, is also essential to macrophage function and intestinal homeostasis in both humans and mice, scientists reported today (March 3) in Science Immunology.

“Many immune-mediated disorders are driven by a combination of genetic susceptibility as well as environmental influences [so] epigenetics is a suitable critical juncture between those two aspects of the disease,” said coauthor Kate Jeffrey, a researcher investigating the epigenetic control of innate immunity at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Source: the-scientist

Parasitic worms help gut flora to prevent Crohn’s disease

The parasitic worms that lurk in some people’s intestines may be revolting, but they seem to forestall Crohn’s disease and other types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). A new study might explain how, revealing that the worms enable beneficial microbes in the intestines to outcompete bacteria that promote inflammation. The results could lead to new ways of treating gut diseases by mimicking the effects of the parasites.

“It’s a beautifully done paper,” says immunologist Joel Weinstock of Tufts University in Boston, who wasn’t connected to the work. “It had not been previously shown that one of the mechanisms [of IBD] is through changes in the intestinal flora.”

In people with IBD, inflammation in the digestive tract results in symptoms such as diarrhea and bleeding and can sometimes lead to intestinal obstructions or other severe complications. Because parasitic worms, or helminths, can be harmful, they appear to be unlikely allies against these diseases. “They are called parasites for a reason,” says immunologist Ken Cadwell of the New York University School of Medicine in New York City, a co-author on the new study. However, IBD is rare in parts of the world where helminths are prevalent, and it is surging in more developed countries, where few people now carry the intestinal intruders. That difference suggests, researchers say, that they are protective.

Read more: Parasitic worms help gut flora to prevent Crohn’s disease

Parasites like this whipworm might protect us from Crohn’s disease by altering our intestinal bacteria.

Source: CNRI/Science