http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0207bowel07.html# Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 7, 2004 12:00 AM
Researchers in Phoenix and Tucson are collaborating on a study to find the genetic roots of inflammatory bowel disease, which affects up to 1 in 500 people in developed countries such as the United States.
The project will involve the Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, and the Children's Research Center at the University of Arizona.
"We're interested in families with two or more affected individuals, or families with a mother and father affected," said Dr. Fayez Ghishan, director of Children's Research Center and head of the pediatrics department at UA. "We think we'll be much more effective in finding new genes."
The yearlong study likely will involve about a dozen families in Tucson and another dozen in Phoenix, Ghishan said. Study participants must be referred by physicians treating individuals with an inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In the Valley, the referral must be made to Dr. Mitchell Shub at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Shub will draw blood from participants in accordance with the study's guidelines.
Jeff Trent, TGen's president and scientific director, said the study would be similar to work the institute is doing to find genes involved in autism and multiple sclerosis.
Like those disorders, inflammatory bowel disease is considered a complex genetic problem with an unknown environmental component.
"It's really awful, crippling, especially if the disease manifests itself very early in life," Trent said.
Researchers have found one gene, NOD2, associated with the disease that also is believed to be more prevalent in the Hispanic community. The study will seek to quantify the prevalence of the gene in Hispanic children with IBD and compare that with children of other ethnic backgrounds.
Nationally, the NOD2 gene accounts for about 10 percent of all IBD cases, Trent said. That means 90 percent of the cases must be caused by other genes. Finding them is possible, Trent said, because of genetics analysis equipment that allows researchers to study individual differences in the human genetic code.
"We won't have the luxury of looking at a high number of patients," Trent said. "So, we'll have to look at a high density of genes at once."
Funding for the project will come from a fashion show held by the Phoenix Women's Board for the Steele Memorial Children's Research Center. UA's Fayez said researchers hope to be able to clone new genes associated with IBD.
"And hopefully, whatever we discover, if we find something exciting, we'll go to the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to bring in more money for the work," he said.
The study will not involve drugs or other interventions for participants. Currently, treatments for IBD, an autoimmune disease, involve stopping inflammation. The disease is characterized by chronic diarrhea, malnutrition, skin rash and inflammation of the bowels.
For Trent's part, the study tackles a "tough disease."
"It's absolutely worth taking a look at," he added.