Future new approaches for bowel disease treatment Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can seriously impact the patient's quality of life. Understanding the genetic basis of the pathology could pave the way for new therapeutic developments. Health © Shutterstock The EC-funded GENETICS OF IBD project sought to identify specific genes that affect disease onset and manifestation. Even though life style factors have been shown to play a very important role at the onset of the disease, little is known about the genetic background behind it. In order to facilitate the genotyping studies, project partners developed a microarray manufacturing system for the production of complementary DNA (cDNA) arrays. Microarrays for chromosome 6 were produced based on the rationale that the genetic predisposition is likely to play a factor in chronic inflammation states like IBD. Indeed, chromosome 6p has been linked to a series of inflammatory diseases including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. In order to verify the initial assumptions, proteomics technologies were utilised for the differential expression of genes and for a systematic post-expression analysis. Through a complex genotype-phenotype analysis the applicability of molecular findings to the population will be defined. The overall aim is to pinpoint and identify abnormalities at the molecular and genetic level thus creating possible new routes for therapy.
