JUPITER, Fla. – An estimated 500,000 American’s suffer from Crohn’s disease, a debilitating condition that can require repetitive surgeries to remove damaged intestinal tissue.
While patients are typically on systemic medications that have unwanted side effects, scientists at Scripps Research Florida in Jupiter are now honing in on a way to develop drugs to treat Crohn’s in a more localized way.
“The way that we’re approaching this at least in use of animals right now is the use of safe FDA medications called bile acid sequestrants and what’s really beautiful about these medicines is that they act locally in the intestine and they don’t get absorbed, they don’t cause any sort of downstream effects on your immune system in any other part of the body other than your small intestine,” said Dr. Mark Sundrud.
Efforts are underway to raise public and private funding for more advanced clinical trials which could quickly lead to targeted treatment options.
And researchers are finding that slurred speech, poor coordination and the sedative effects of drinking too much may be caused by the breakdown of alcohol products produced in the brain, not in the liver.
If the findings in mice can be replicated in humans, it may open the door to new therapies for treating alcohol use disorder.