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IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME (IBS)
Clinical
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is an umbrella
term for the presence of a collection of abdominal symptoms
for which an alternative
pathological cause cannot be found. Common symptoms include
abdominal pain, bloating, and altered bowel habit. Most
cases are probably due to disordered motility. The complex
of nerves in the bowel wall control motility, so IBS can
be considered a disorder of the enteric nervous system.
It is the commonest condition seen by gastroenterologists,
affecting upto 25% of the population occasionally, a further
25% of whomwill have symptoms severe enough to prompt medical
referral. In approximately 50% an improvement in symptoms
over 12 months is seen. In others, chronic intermittent
symptoms are more typical.
No treatment is universally successful.
Approximately 30% of patients respond to any particular
drug, although
the efficacy of this drug may vary with time. A constipating
agent, such as loperamide, amitriptyline or codeine, is
used if diarrhoea is prominent, and a high-fibre diet
if constipation is a sysmptom. Anticholinergics such as
mebeverine have a useful antispasmodic action. They are
very effective for a few patients, partially effective
for many, but ineffective for others. Peppermint oil is
also sometimes used.
There is a need for both more effective therapies, in particular
to normalise gut motility, and for models of the disease
state to help identify and predict the efficacy of candidate
therapies.
DanioLabs approach
DanioLabs is identifying and developing
compounds to normalise gut motiliy. DanioLabs is able to visualise
gut motility in vivo in a high-throughput fashion and identify agents which
revert dysmotility.
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