A study carried out by ENEA shows evidence of an association between inflammatory bowel disorders and body health, damaging the brain area involved in cognitive processes.
The research, the laboratory results of which have been recently published in the Neural Regeneration Research journal, suggests that chronic and acute colitis are associated with the onset of neuroinflammation and significant metabolic aberrations which affect the life of cells and the normal function of the brain, nerves and heart.
“These alterations are related to diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, colorectal cancer and autism, confirming that other types of mental disorders could be associated with bowel inflammation and metabolic imbalance,” said Simonetta Pazzaglia, head of the ENEA Laboratory of Biomedical Technologies and co-author of the paper.
The study findings “suggest that bowel inflammation is not an isolated phenomenon, but can affect body health, altering metabolites that can impact the brain. Studying the mechanisms that regulate this complex bidirectional communication between the two organs will be very useful for identifying new therapeutic strategies for intestinal inflammation, correctly reintegrating the bacterial flora or using new generation drugs or even molecules of natural origin,” continued the researcher.
Over the last few years, scientific evidence has been gained that suggest that this association can represent a new therapeutic target for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. “Treating patients’ specific intestinal microbiota could also reduce neurological symptoms in neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases,” concluded Simonetta Pazzaglia.
It is important to highlight that in industrialized countries, the incidence of inflammatory bowel disorders is high and constantly rising and international studies have found double rate of depression in patients with inflammatory bowel disorders and an increased risk of intestinal cancer which is the second most common cause of death after cardiovascular diseases.
