UCD experts claim cure for Bowel disease

Experts at one of the country’s leading scientific research centres believe they have discovered a cure for the chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), it was revealed today.

A team from University College Dublin’s Conway Institute successfully used a new class of drugs to treat the debilitating illness which affects 15,000 people in Ireland.

And researchers are now teaming up with experts at University of Colorado, Denver to develop a safe way for people to use the drugs.

Current therapy and treatment options are very limited and surgery to remove sections of the intestine is often the only option.

Professor Cormac Taylor, from the Conway Institute, said the treatment has the potential to completely reverse the symptoms of IBD.

“Under normal conditions our gastro-intestinal tract is lined with cells that block the contents of the gut from leaking into the intestine,” he said.

“However, when a person is suffering from IBD this barrier is broken and the contents of the gut leak out into surrounding areas.”

The researchers discovered a new class of drugs known as hydroxylase inhibitors reacted with the gut to create protective pathways keeping cells that line the intestines alive.

The discovery was published in the scientific journal Gastroenterology and research by experts at the University of Colorado supports the Irish findings.

Both teams will now work together to develop a safe way to deliver the drugs.