A new study by researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine has discovered a growth factor protein, which is produced by rare immune cells in the intestine, can protect your gut from the effects of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to Science Daily.
The study found that the growth factor, HB-EGF, is produced in response to gut inflammation, which is set by ILC3s – the immune-regulating cells that reside in many organs, including the intestines. The number of ILC3s is depleted in the inflamed intestines of IBD patients.
In mice, the researchers found that HB-EGF could powerfully counter the harmful effects of TNF, a key driver of intestinal inflammation. While doing so, ILC3s protect gut-lining cells when they would otherwise die and cause a breach in the intestinal barrier, per Science Daily.
Senior author Dr. Gregory Sonnenberg said, “We’ve discovered a new cellular pathway that is essential to protect against gut inflammation. This discovery could lead to a better understanding of IBD pathogenesis and new strategies to treat this disease.”
Previously, Dr. Sonnenberg and his team found that ILC3s play a key role in protecting the gut from harmful inflammation. They also found the cells are depleted in patients who have IBD or colon cancer. And in the new study, the researchers sought a precise understanding of how these cells fight against the inflammatory effects of IBD.
The researchers found that ILC3s are the dominant producers of HB-EGF in the gut.
The study findings reveal a key mechanism that the intestines normally use to protect themselves from harmful inflammation, suggesting that the depletion of ILC3s is one of the reasons this mechanism fails in IBD.
Dr. Sonnenberg said, “Identifying the significance of this pathway is a good first step, and we’re now thinking about how we might manipulate this pathway to benefit IBD patients.”
He also said that the depletion of ILC3s in the IBD gut poses a challenge to the development of therapeutic solutions that depend on ILC3s. Although the growth factor protein HB-EGF on its own could be therapeutic, even if ILC3s are depleted, it has been associated with the faster growth of various cancers.
First author Dr. Lei Zhou said, “Our ongoing research is interrogating the role of this ILC3 and HB-EGF pathway in the development of chronic-inflammation-related colon cancer.
“It will be important to delineate the exact cellular and molecular mechanisms by which this novel pathway coordinates intestinal health, inflammation, and cancer before moving forward with manipulating it as a therapeutic strategy,” he added. The study was published Monday in the journal Nature Immunology.
