(Press-News.org) Changes in the gut microbiome before rheumatoid arthritis is developed could provide a window of opportunity for preventative treatments, new research suggests.
Bacteria associated with inflammation is found in the gut in higher amounts roughly ten months before patients develop clinical rheumatoid arthritis, a longitudinal study by Leeds researchers has found.
Affecting more than half a million people in the UK, rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that causes swelling, pain and stiffness in the joints because the immune system is mistakenly attacking the body’s healthy cells.
Previous research has linked rheumatoid arthritis to the gut microbiome, which is the ecosystem of microbes in your intestines. But this new study, published today in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, reveals a potential intervention point.
Lead researcher Dr Christopher Rooney, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer at the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Patients at risk of rheumatoid arthritis are already experiencing symptoms such as fatigue and joint pain, and they may know someone in their family who has developed the disease. As there is no known cure, at-risk patients often feel a sense of hopelessness, or even avoid getting tested.
“This new research might give us a major opportunity to act sooner to prevent rheumatoid arthritis.”
Major opportunity for treatment
Funded by Versus Arthritis, the longitudinal study was conducted on 19 patients at risk of rheumatoid arthritis, with samples taken five times during a 15-month period.
Five of these patients progressed to clinical arthritis, and the research showed they had gut instability with higher amounts of bacteria including Prevotella, which is associated with rheumatoid arthritis, about ten months before progression. The remaining 14, whose disease didn’t progress, had largely stable amounts of bacteria in their gut.
Potential treatments that the researchers want to test at the ten-month window include changes to diet like eating more fibre, taking prebiotics or probiotics, and improving dental hygiene to keep harmful bacteria from periodontal disease away from the gut.
The exact relationship between gut inflammation and rheumatoid arthritis development remains unclear. In a small number of patients within the study, the gut changes occurred before there were any changes to the joints observed by a rheumatologist, but more research is needed to determine whether these influence each other.
Although bacteria is associated with rheumatoid arthritis, the researchers want to make it clear that there is no evidence this is contagious.
Lucy Donaldson, director for research and health intelligence at Versus Arthritis, said: “At Versus Arthritis, we welcome the findings of this study which could give the clinicians of the future a crucial window of opportunity to delay - or even prevent - the onset of rheumatoid arthritis. This success is testament to the dedication of UK researchers who are working to personalise treatment and prevent chronic conditions that have significant impacts on a person’s ability to work, raise families and live independently.”
Years in the making
The research was carried out in collaboration with the National Institute for Health Research Leeds Biomedical Research Centre, under the research themes of Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection and Musculoskeletal Disease.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Versus Arthritis and Leeds Hospitals Charity were also partners on the project. Patients at Chapel Allerton Hospital helped to design the research to make stool sampling easier for participants.
The study initially took data from 124 individuals who had high levels of CCP+, an antibody that attacks healthy cells in the blood, which indicates risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers compared their samples to 22 healthy individuals and seven people who had a new rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.
The findings from this larger group showed that the gut microbiome was less diverse in the at-risk group, compared to the healthy control group.
The longitudinal study, which took samples from 19 patients over 15 months, revealed the changes in bacteria at ten months before progression to rheumatoid arthritis.
The Leeds research team will now carry out an analysis of treatments that have already been trialed, to inform future testing of treatments at this potential ten-month intervention point.
END
Signals from the gut could transform rheumatoid arthritis treatment
2024-11-08
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Pioneering research reveals some of the world’s least polluting populations are at much greater risk of flooding fuelled by climate change
2024-11-08
A new study has exposed for the first time how inhabitants of the smallest countries globally, contributing least to climate change, already bear the brunt of its devastating consequences and the burden is likely to worsen.
The research, led by the University of Bristol, showed on average nearly one in five people (20%) in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – totalling some 8.5million – are now exposed to coastal and inland flooding. For three of the 57 countries concentrated in the Pacific, Caribbean, Indian Ocean, ...
UK’s health data should be recognized as critical national infrastructure, says independent review
2024-11-08
An independent review, Uniting the UK’s Health Data: A Huge Opportunity for Society, published today (8 November 2024), has found that complexities and inefficiencies are impeding the use of the UK’s rich sources of health data to improve people’s health and lives. Researchers and analysts frequently have to wait many months – or even years – to securely access health data to improve care and for vital research into diseases like dementia, cancer and heart disease.
Led by Professor ...
A 36-gene predictive score of anti-cancer drug resistance anticipates cancer therapy outcomes
2024-11-07
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Cancer Act, launching a nationwide effort to combat the disease. Eighty-seven years later, despite significant progress, cancer treatment often falls short, with 50 to 80 percent of patients not responding to treatment and more than 600,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States.
What if clinicians could predict the success of any cancer treatment, ensuring each patient receives the most effective care?
The challenge lies in the diverse nature of the disease. There are hundreds of different types of cancers, characterized by the specific type of cell from which they originate. Even patients ...
Someone flirts with your spouse. Does that make your partner appear more attractive?
2024-11-07
Picture this: You’re at a bar when someone starts hitting shamelessly on your spouse or significant other, who doesn’t flirt back. As the scene unfolds, your base instincts kick in—annoyance, anger, jealousy—followed by a heightened sexual desire for your partner. You’re ready to reclaim the attention that should be rightfully yours, correct?
Not necessarily, according to a new study in the Journal of Sex Research by researchers at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, and ...
Hourglass-shaped stent could ease severe chest pain from microvascular disease
2024-11-07
ROCHESTER, Minn. — A study at Mayo Clinic suggests that an hourglass-shaped stent could improve blood flow and ease severe and reoccurring chest pain in people with microvascular disease. Of 30 participants in a phase 2 clinical trial, 76% saw improvement in their day-to-day life. For example, some participants who reported not being able to walk around the block or up a flight of stairs without chest pain were able to do these ordinary physical activities at the end of a 120-day period. Clinical measures of blood flow related to the microvasculature of the heart significantly improved during ...
United Nations ratifies framework to protect people on cash app
2024-11-07
As mobile-money services were growing at a rapid clip in the developing world 10 years ago, University of Florida computer scientists and cybersecurity experts Kevin Butler and Patrick Traynor were early sentinels, raising concerns about the lack of security that could lead to real problems for the user.
In a 2014 study, the two professors from UF’s Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, uncovered security vulnerabilities of mobile cash apps, especially in the Global South, where such technologies were becoming essential in the absence of robust banking systems.
“Our early work uncovered ...
Oklahoma State basketball team joins the Nation of Lifesavers
2024-11-07
http://newsroom.heart.org/news/oklahoma-state-basketball-team-joins-the-nation-of-lifesavers?preview=8409af5e5a5f3127f6aec7e122cc9673STILLWATER, Okla., October 28, 2024 — The Oklahoma State University (OSU) men’s basketball team participated in an American Heart Association Hands-Only CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training to learn the correct rate and depth of CPR compressions to be confident and capable when faced with a cardiac emergency. Learning Hands-Only CPR is the skill needed to join the Association’s Nation of Lifesavers™ movement, which is focused on doubling survival rates ...
Power of aesthetic species on social media boosts wildlife conservation efforts, say experts
2024-11-07
Facebook and Instagram can boost wildlife conservation efforts through public awareness and engagement, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Communication.
The findings based on the caracal – a wild cat native to Africa with distinctive tufted ears – demonstrate how social media can harness support for the predators, which some farmers shoot and poison.
Results show that the mammal’s similarity to a domestic feline has attracted thousands of followers to internet feeds about caracal conservation. ...
Researchers develop robotic sensory cilia that monitor internal biomarkers to detect and assess airway diseases
2024-11-07
Xiaoguang Dong, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is leading a team of researchers that has developed a system of artificial cilia capable of monitoring mucus conditions in human airways to better detect infection, airway obstruction, or the severity of diseases like Cystic Fibrosis (CF), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) and lung cancer.
The research was published in the November 4 issue of PNAS in the article, “Sensory Artificial Cilia for In Situ Monitoring of Airway Physiological Properties.”
In their paper, the researchers noted that continuously ...
Could crowdsourcing hold the key to early wildfire detection?
2024-11-07
The 2023 blaze in Lahaina, Hawaii, which claimed more than 100 lives and burned 6,500 acres of land across Maui, is a tragic example of how rapid wildfire spread can make effective response efforts impossible, resulting in the loss of life and property.
What if technology could help people detect wildfires earlier? The solution could already be in your pocket: a mobile phone.
USC computer science researchers have developed a new crowdsourcing system that dramatically slashes wildfire mapping time from hours to seconds using a network of low-cost mobile phones mounted on properties in high fire threat areas. In computer simulations, the system, FireLoc, detected blazes igniting ...