Team awarded €5m for gastro study

A TEAM of Irish researchers has been awarded €5 million funding to examine the effect of infectious organisms and probiotic bacteria on humans.

The five-year collaborative gastrointestinal infection study will examine the causes of ulcers and diarrhoeal disease in both adults and children.

The researchers intend to investigate how sugar structures on the surface of human intestinal cells respond and change when they are exposed to infectious or probiotic organisms.

The project is being led by Prof Lokesh Joshi of NUI Galway, who will be working with researchers from UCD, UCC, Teagasc and the Children’s Research Centre at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.

The research brings together a multidisciplinary team, including experts in gastrointestinal infections, glycobiology, chemistry, gene and protein analysis. The project is being funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).

The team intends to investigate how commonly occurring organisms, such as Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacter jejuni, cause disease in adults and, in particular, children.

Helicobacter pylori is the cause of ulcers in humans and previous research by members of the group has shown that people acquire the infection in early childhood, often from their parents, and that it then stays with them for the rest of their life.

Campylobacter jejuni causes diarrhoeal disease and is the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in the world.

“Infection is a huge issue for children in Ireland and worldwide, gastrointestinal infection in particular,” said Prof Billy Bourke, a researcher involved in the project who is based at UCD and the Children’s Research Centre. “The aim of the group is not only to understand how the bugs and cells interact with each other, but to develop ways of interfering with this interaction to treat and prevent infection.”

Prof Bourke and other researchers at Crumlin hospital have previously specialised in developing ways of looking at these infections in the laboratory because it is not possible to study them directly in humans or in animals.

He said the project could establish a better understanding of molecular interactions and may even identify a means to prevent the occurrence of gastrointestinal disease through dietary intervention. “For example, we know that breast milk is very effective at protecting babies from gastroenteritis and one of our goals is to see if the sugars in breast milk could be effective future treatments for these intestinal infections.”