Food poisoning impairs intestinal wound healing in Crohn’s disease

Eating is a dangerous job. Naturally occurring toxins in foods and potentially harmful food-derived microorganisms have many effects on the intestines and can cause repeated minor injuries. In healthy people, such injuries usually heal in a day or two. However, in people with Crohn’s disease, the wound worsens, causing abdominal pain, bleeding, diarrhea, and other unpleasant symptoms.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis’ School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic have found that fungi in foods such as cheese and processed meat can infect and prevent intestinal injuries in mice and patients with Crohn’s disease. Healing..In addition, infected mice Antifungal drug Eliminate fungi, scratch To heal.

The findings were published in the journal on March 12th. Science, Antifungal and dietary changes suggest a potential new approach to improving intestinal wound healing and reducing the symptoms of Crohn’s disease.

“It doesn’t suggest that people stop eating cheese or processed meats, which is far beyond what we know now,” said a pathology and immunology instructor at the School of Medicine. Said the lead author, Dr. Umang Jain. .. “What we know is that this food poisoning bacterium enters inflamed and damaged tissue and causes harm. Is there a correlation between the diet and the abundance of this bacterium in the intestines? We plan to conduct a large study of people to find out. Therefore, dietary adjustments may reduce fungal levels, which may reduce the symptoms of Crohn’s disease. “

Crohn’s disease is a subtype of inflammatory bowel disease.As the name implies, it is driven by Chronic inflammation In Gastrointestinal tract And it is mainly treated with immunosuppressive drugs. Patients with Crohn’s disease tolerate repeated cycles of relapse and remission of gastrointestinal symptoms. During flares, their digestive tract is dotted with inflamed, open pain that can last for weeks or even months.

Jain and senior author Thaddeus Stappenbeck, MD, Ph.D. to understand why intestinal ulcers take so long to heal in some people. Previously at the University of Washington and now at the Cleveland Clinic, he studied mice with intestinal injuries. By sequencing microbial DNA at the site of injury, they found that the fungus Debaryomyces hansenii was abundant in the wound but not in the undamaged part of the intestine.

People acquire fungi through food and drink, Jane said. D. hansenii is common in all types of cheese, not just sausages, beer, wine and other fermented foods.

Further experiments show that when fungi are introduced into mice with intestinal damage, Healing process, And eliminating D. hansenii with the antifungal drug amphotericin B speeded it up.

People with Crohn’s disease have the same fungus as mice. Jain and Stappenbeck examined intestinal biopsies of 7 and 10 healthy people with Crohn’s disease. All seven patients had fungi in their intestinal tissue, compared to just one healthy person.Another analysis of the 10 Crohn’s disease patients involved Tissue sample In both inflamed and non-inflamed areas of the intestine, researchers found fungi in samples from all patients, but only at the site of injury and inflammation.

“Looking at a sample of the stool of a healthy person, this fungus is very abundant,” Jane said. “It enters your body and comes out again. However, people with Crohn’s disease have a defect in the intestinal barrier that allows the fungus to enter the tissue and survive there, and it is at the site of ulcers and inflammation. Go home. Prevent those areas from healing. “

Findings suggest that eliminating the fungus may restore normal wound healing and shorten relapse. Amphotericin B has been effective in eliminating fungi in mouse studies, but it is not widely used by people because it can only be given intravenously. Researchers are working with chemists to develop effective antifungal agents that can be taken orally. They are also studying whether there is a link between diet and the amount of fungi in people’s digestive tract.

“Clone’s disease is essentially an inflammatory disease, so even if we find a way to improve wound healing, we can’t cure it,” Jane said. “But in people with Crohn’s disease, impaired wound healing causes a lot of pain, if it can be shown to deplete it. fungus Dietary changes or antifungal medications can improve wound healing in the human body, which can affect quality of life in ways we could not with more traditional approaches. There is. ”