Start date: 2021
Award: £49,709
Status: Complete
What question does this research address?
The cause of ulcerative colitis (UC) is unknown, less than half of patients respond to current therapies and the only cure is removal of the colon. The limited treatment options available is partly due to a lack of human-specific UC disease models that can be used in the lab to identify new therapies. Having accurate models is very important because it allows researchers to perform vital studies that would not a feasible in patients. Greater, human-specific knowledge of UC is needed so diagnosis, prognosis and treatment can be improved.
How did study work and what were the results?
The research team developed a collaboration between the University of Nottingham Division of Cancer and Stem cells and the Nottingham Digestive Disease Centre to produce a human-specific model of UC using colon tissue from healthy and UC patients, creating “mini-colons” in a petri dish. This model of UC used cells from 30 different patients, and the team used it to understand how the immune system, bacteria, and scarring, which are important features of UC, contribute to the disease beginning and progressing.
The team saw that gut cells in people with UC respond differently to inflammation signals, increasing inflammation rather than calming it as would happen in a healthy gut. They also looked at the different proteins the cells make to understand more about how they are reacting differently to healthy cells.
How could this project help future research?
The research team went on to receive a larger grant based on this data to continue the work in developing their model of UC. Developing these “mini-colons” could help test drugs and markers in the tissue that could be used for diagnosis. The knowledge gained from this project could provide information on other diseases such as Crohn’s disease and bowel cancer.
The researchers
This study was led by Dr Nicholas Hannan and Dr Gordan Moran at the University of Nottingham.