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Millions of people suffering from chronic gut pain associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) will be pleased to hear that progress has been made in improving our understanding of the mechanisms of IBS, which could lead to the development of effective treatments.

researchers at the (SAHMRI) have discovered that receptors that cause irritated, itchy skin also exist in the human gut. These receptors activate neurons, which cause IBS patients to experience chronic gut pain or a seriously painful 鈥榞ut itch鈥�. The research findings suggest that these 鈥榠tch鈥� receptors may be more abundant in IBS patients than in healthy individuals. The presence of more receptors means that more neurons are activated, causing the feeling of more pain.

Professor Stuart Brierley, National Health and Medical Research Council and Matthew Flinders Research Fellow in Gastrointestinal Neuroscience said these gut itch receptors could offer a new way of targeting the underlying cause of gut pain rather than using traditional drugs, such as opioids.

鈥淲e found receptors which bring about an itchy feeling on skin also do the same in the gut, so these patients are essentially suffering from a 鈥榞ut itch鈥�. We鈥檝e translated these results to human tissue tests and now hope to help create a treatment where people can take an oral medication for IBS,鈥� he said.

Professor Brierley, also the Director of the Visceral Pain Research Group at SAHMRI, said the pain experienced by IBS sufferers takes place when itch receptors are coupled with what鈥檚 known as the 鈥榳asabi receptor鈥� in the nervous system, which normally helps people react to consuming the Japanese condiment wasabi.

鈥淗aving shown these mechanisms contribute to chronic gut pain, we can now work out ways to block these receptors and thereby stop the 鈥榞ut itch鈥� signal travelling from the gut to the brain. This will be a far better solution than the problems currently presented by opioid treatments. 鈥�

The study results are published in .

Image credit: 漏stock.adobe.com/au/Suttipun