Dear Listfriends,
Judith Richards has temporarily signed off the list, however, she sent
me this article on GI motility with instructions to post it to the list
if it seemed worthwhile. I thought the potential is very exciting,
though the drugs are a long way off.
Best,
Kathrynne
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Receptor discovery may lead to new heartburn drugs
NEW YORK, Jun 24 (Reuters Health) -- The discovery of a receptor for a
gastrointestinal hormone on the lining of the gut may one day lead to
the development of more effective treatments for heartburn, constipation
and other gastrointestinal problems, researchers suggest.
The hormone motilin is important for proper functioning of the digestive
tract. An international team of researchers report that they have
identified the receptor on cells that binds motilin. This binding
process triggers the activities related to the hormone, such as
contraction of the walls of the stomach and intestine.
The next step is to design drugs that inhibit or promote motilin's
activity, the investigators report in the June 25th issue of the journal
Science.
``This is a receptor for a gastrointestinal hormone that affects
contractions in the gut,'' researcher Roy G. Smith, director of the
Huffington Center on Aging and a professor of cell biology at Baylor
College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, told Reuters Health.
``If contractions in the gut are normal, there are no problems. But if
contractions in the gut are sluggish, constipation, irritable bowel
syndrome and other problems can result,'' he said. Irritable bowel
syndrome is marked by intermittent periods of diarrhea and constipation
and occasional pain in the lower abdomen.
``This is just the start,'' Smith says. ``It's very exciting from a
scientific perspective but it may be 7 to 10 years before we see new
drugs on the market.''
To arrive at their findings, Smith and researchers from Merck Research
Laboratories conducted a series of laboratory experiments in which they
tested thousands of hormones to see which activates a newly discovered
receptor site on a cell. They found that motilin is the hormone that
activates the receptor site.
``Motilin, a hormone found in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, helps
digestion by stimulating muscle contractions. Discovery of the motilin
receptor may aid in developing medicines to treat disorders such as
constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and GERD (gastroesophageal reflux
disorder),'' researcher Andrew D. Howard, of Merck Research Laboratories
in Rahway, New Jersey, told Reuters Health.
``Collectively, GI disorders represent one of the largest healthcare
burdens in industrialized nations,'' he added.
Researchers found that a commonly prescribed antibiotic, called
erythromycin, also binds to this receptor site, which may explain why
the drug causes vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal
side effects in some users, they report.
SOURCE: Science 1999;284:2184-2187.
Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
<[log in to unmask]>
^^^
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\ | / Today’s Research
\\ | // ...Tomorrow’s Cure
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--
Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD
Medical nutrition therapy
Author: "Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease"
"Parkinson's disease: assessing and managing unique nutrition needs"
http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/
