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ARTHUR BEYDER: Whenever we find really interesting mechanisms that drive gut function sensing, motility, that's an extremely exciting day.
JEAN FOX: Motility is such a big umbrella. But if we're talking about irritable bowel syndrome or gastroparesis, those are two things that we commonly see. Sometimes, the disorder is the muscles are not working well or the nerves are not working well. And sometimes, there can be a sensory disorder. We have excellent tools in our toolbox to get to the bottom of what's going on.
ARTHUR BEYDER: We're very interested in visualizing how the gastrointestinal tract accepts food, how it responds to it, how it processes it, how it moves it along, how it gets rid of it. Our goal is to design physiologic testing that is able to really answer those questions concretely.
MICHAEL CAMILLERI: It's been important to develop and validate tests. These tests evaluate the motor function of the intestine, but we also use tests obtained in other departments, radiology departments, autonomic nervous system departments. And these help us to identify the precise cause and also to individualize the treatment of the patient. We are empowered by all of these validated tests, which help us to identify what we call actionable biomarkers.
MADHU GROVER: We have done a lot of studies trying to understand really the mechanistic drivers of symptoms. We have been examining these molecules in the gut called proteases. These are secreted by pancreas, and they have important roles to play in the digestion. We are learning that up to 40% of individuals with IBS, there is impaired inactivation of these molecules. They can result in loss of barrier function in the gut, which is also described as leaky gut. This is an example of a research where we are really trying to understand at least one of the drivers of pain in IBS.
MICHAEL CAMILLERI: Leaky gut has been considered to be a problem of so many illnesses, inflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, et cetera. Well, it turns out that we here at Mayo Clinic have developed and validated a very simple test to measure leaky gut.
MADHU GROVER: Discoveries of the last 5 to 10 years made by us and others really poise us to be at that forefront of reimagining how these patients can be treated for good. And those discoveries are going to lie in the space of microbial modulation. They're going to lie in the space immunomodulation. And I think that's the future for treatment of these disorders.
ARTHUR BEYDER: So what we would love to be able to do is empower our patients and our referring providers to have a roadmap of how to deal, to treat, and ultimately cure the diseases that the patients suffer from.
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