The custom and natural defence against infections and toxins or better summarised as the immune system just got an upgrade.
In a study led by Prof. Dr. Andreas Diefenbach, Director of Charité’s Institute of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology and Head of the Mucosal Immunology Research Group at the German Rheumatism Research Centre, a different approach of the immune system to bowel cancer was discovered.
The study published in the scientific journal Nature details Prof. Diefenbach and his teams’ research. The researchers, from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin an affiliate of Humboldt University and Freie Universität Berlin, made a discovery of a protective mechanism used by the body to protect intestinal stem cells from turning cancerous and further showed the innate immune system taking centre stage in it.
In a mouse model demonstration, the team highlighted on the necessity of the immune system in maintaining a healthy body and showed the immune system to be more than the defensive role it is known to have. They discovered that the immune system is capable of enhancing the DNA repair mechanism in damaged stem cells, hence preventing progression to bowel cancer. This extends the theory about stem cells triggering the cells to repair this type of DNA damage independently or committing Altruistic Cell Suicide, known as Apoptosis.
The professor explained that “the immune system acts like a sensor that detects genotoxic food components” as it shows that innate cells of the immune system can detect genetoxic environmental factors, a leading factor in bowel cancer, in the bowel. He added that “switching off this sensor results in a significant increase in cases of bowel cancer”.
With this new discovery, Diefenbach and his team plan to research and explore the complex interaction between food components, intestinal flora, the intestinal wall and the immune system. And as said by Dienfenbach, aim to “find the key to why there are so many inflammatory disorders”.
Story cited from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
