IBS and enzymes

Irritable bowel syndrome, what about the enzymes?

Irritable bowel syndrome or functional colopathy affects 10% of the population and greatly impacts the quality of life of the patients suffering from it.

An INSERM team studied the proteases*, the enzymes responsible for digesting proteins, whose activity is abnormally high in the intestinal tract in people suffering from functional colopathy.

Using a technique for visualizing enzymatic activity called zymography, researchers were able to demonstrate that enzymatic activity was produced by intestinal mucosal cells and that one enzyme in particular, trypsin 3, stimulates epithelial permeability by exciting the gut neurons.

Here is an interesting lead to apply in other digestive pathologies such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and paves the way for new treatments to relieve patients with functional colopathy.

Pr De Simone, about

* STUDY: C. Rolland-Foucarde et coll. Epithelial expression and function of trypsin-3 in irritable bowel syndrome, Gut 2017;0:1–12. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2016-312094