Project Details
Projekt
Mechanisms of intestinal immune activation in RA – consequences for clinical onset
Subject Area
Clinical Immunology and Allergology
Term
from 2019 to 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405969122
During the first funding period, we showed the existence of a leaky gut in the pre-clinical state of arthritis in mice and men. Moreover, we could identify direct immunological consequences of gut primed immune cells traveling to the joints. This led us to propose new treatment opportunities to maintain functional gut barrier by blocking zonulin mediated tight junction degradation in epithelial cells. This therapeutic intervention is in short reach as the zonulin antagonist larazotide is already used in phase III clinical trials for the treatment of celiac disease and will open a new time window to interfere in the early onset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here, we will go one step further and concentrate on the events triggering the identified breach in intestinal barrier function, the subclinical gut inflammation and the subsequent release of the effector molecule zonulin by epithelial cells in order to unravel underlying mechanisms that bypass cellular and molecular repair responses.
DFG Programme
Research Units
Subproject of
FOR 2886:
PANDORA - Pathways triggering AutoimmuNity and Defining Onset of early Rheumatoid Arthritis
Major Instrumentation
Zellanalysesystem
Instrumentation Group
3590 Sonstige Geräte für Gewebe- und Zelluntersuchung
