inflammation

Taming Inflammation in the Intestines

IRP’s Warren Strober Breaks Down the Causes of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

man with stomach pains

For many, the holiday season brings expectations of delicious meals and treats with family and friends, but the nearly 1.6 million Americans who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may need to skip these delights or endure serious digestive distress. It’s fitting, then, that the first week of December is Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week, an occasion that calls attention to the two conditions lumped together under the umbrella of IBD.

Of course, no awareness week is needed to remind IRP senior investigator Warren Strober, M.D., of the importance of learning more about those two conditions. An expert in how the immune system operates within the digestive system, Dr. Strober has spent decades looking for ways to provide relief for IBD sufferers.

IRP’s John O’Shea Elected to National Academy of Sciences

NIH Scientist Spurred Revolution in Autoimmune Disease Therapy

Dr. John O'Shea

IRP senior investigator John O’Shea, M.D., is a man of many talents. During his career at NIH, he has applied his creativity and drive not just to playing a variety of instruments in a rock band made up of NIH scientists, the Affordable Rock ‘n’ Roll Act (ARRA), but also to his groundbreaking research on the immune system.

This May, Dr. O’Shea, who is the Scientific Director at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his influential research on the biochemical chain of events that kicks our immune system into gear, which has led to a better understanding of how genetic mutations interfere with the immune response, as well as the development of an entire new class of drugs that target the immune system.

Therapeutic Strategy Protects Heart From Diabetic Damage

Mouse Study Points to Approach for Preventing Diabetes-Related Heart Failure

diabetic man testing his blood sugar

Our cells love to lap up sugar from our blood, but as is often the case, too much of a good thing can cause problems. In people with diabetes, chronically high blood sugar can harm organs, including the heart. In an effort to combat this life-threatening problem, IRP researchers demonstrated in mice that activating a specific biological pathway in heart cells can reduce diabetes’ damaging effects on the vital organ.

Drug Duo Stokes Body’s Fat-Burning Furnace

Mouse Study Suggests Treatment Strategy Could Benefit Patients with Obesity

fire

It’s bad enough that the excess abdominal fat carried by most individuals with obesity causes widespread inflammation throughout their bodies. To add insult to injury, that inflammation actually makes it harder to use up overloaded fat stores. However, a new IRP mouse study supports a two-pronged pharmaceutical approach that could break this vicious cycle and help improve the health of people with obesity.

New Lasker Scholars Begin Breaking New Ground

Early-Career Scientists Power Through Pandemic to Launch Labs

NIH’s 2021 Lasker Clinical Research Scholars

NIH has long prided itself on its ability to accelerate the careers of the brightest young physicians and scientists in the country. One of these many efforts is the Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program, which provides a select group of individuals relatively early in their scientific careers with the funding and institutional support to start their own labs at NIH. After five to seven years of independent research in the IRP, Lasker Scholars are given the option to apply for three years of funding for work outside of NIH or to remain as investigators at NIH.

While launching a lab in the midst of a global pandemic is no easy task, five Lasker Scholars have done just that over the past year. Their research on cancer, Parkinson’s disease, childhood blindness, and inflammatory conditions is now well underway and promises to eventually improve the lives of many patients. Keep reading to learn more about how NIH’s newest Lasker Scholars are changing the way we treat those illnesses.

Inflammation Contributes to Cancer-Related Fatigue

Mouse Study Suggests Approach to Combat Patients’ Debilitating Tiredness

exhausted person in bed

The human body is like any delicate ecosystem — disrupting just one part of it can have unexpected, widespread repercussions. Cancer patients know this well, not just because a tumor confined to one organ can cause a range of symptoms, but also because radiation treatment aimed specifically at the tumor sometimes leaves patients feeling utterly exhausted. New IRP research suggests that an inflammatory response to targeted radiation therapy is responsible for this common side effect of the treatment.

Closing in on the Circuitry of Chronic Itch

Genetic Studies Illuminate Neuronal Chemical’s Role in Pain and Itch

hands with rash caused by psoriasis

For most of us, itch is a bothersome inconvenience. Unfortunately, for 125 million people around the world, chronic itch caused by the skin disease psoriasis is a significant, even debilitating, health problem. Psoriasis causes skin cells to multiply up to 10 times faster than normal and build up as an itchy and painful, scaly rash. For some, the condition can also cause joint swelling, resulting in a condition known as ‘psoriatic arthritis.’

World Psoriasis Day falls on October 29 this year, and the theme is “Be Informed.” So, what do we know about chronic itch?

Mold Exposure Sets Stage for Severe Flu

Mouse Study Suggests Common Fungus Could Worsen Respiratory Infections

black mold growing on a wall

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, both scientists and the media have focused on the factors that influence who experiences mild symptoms or none at all and who faces potentially life-threatening consequences from the disease. Other respiratory viruses like the flu also have widely varying effects on different patients. New IRP research has found that exposure to a common variety of mold primes the immune system to overreact to the flu virus, dramatically increasing the illness’s severity.

Pandemic Brings All Hands on Deck

IRP Investigators Begin Hundreds of New Coronavirus-Related Studies

coronavirus particles (gold) emerging from an infected cell

Within just a few months after COVID-19 began spreading in the United States, IRP researchers had already made numerous important contributions to the fight against the deadly virus. Scientific knowledge about the disease continues to expand at a unprecedented pace, and the IRP will continue to play a major role in this effort over the coming months and years. In fact, nearly 300 new intramural research projects related to the novel coronavirus are currently starting up or have already begun.

Mouth Microbes Turn Treasonous in Gum Disease

Four Questions with Dr. Niki Moutsopoulos

bacteria

Our mouths are teeming with bacteria, a microbial ecosystem known as the oral microbiome. While these microbes are typically benign, under certain circumstances they can turn harmful and contribute to oral diseases such as periodontitis, a form of chronic gum disease characterized by microbe-driven inflammation of the soft tissues and bone that support our teeth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 65 million Americans aged 30 or older have some degree of periodontitis. In its early stage, known as gingivitis, the gums become swollen and red due to inflammation, which is the body’s natural response to the presence of bacteria. If the condition worsens, it can lead to loose teeth and, eventually, bone or tooth loss.

NIH senior investigator Niki Moutsopoulos, Ph.D., head of the Oral Immunity and Inflammation Section at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), studies periodontitis and aims to understand the immune system’s role in driving this destruction. In a 2018 study, she and her team of IRP researchers and outside collaborators discovered that an abnormal and unhealthy population of microbes in the mouth causes specialized immune cells, known as T helper 17 (Th17) cells, to trigger inflammation and destroy tissue, leading to periodontitis.