Diabetes drugs could “ease” Crohn’s

Drugs currently used for the treatment of diabetes could offer a new way to manage incurable bowel conditions such as Crohn’s disease, a report has claimed.

Scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, France, found that GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia helped boost a protein responsible for regulating bacteria-killing gut defences.

Takeda Pharmaceutical’s Actos was found to act in a similar fashion.

Study leader Mathias Chamaillard said he was hopeful the research would give new hope to Crohn’s sufferers, many of whom have to rely on a group of injectable drugs which are not always effective and do not always stand the test of time.

He added that foods containing conjugated linoleic acid could also help boost PPAR-gamma activity.

The results were reported in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Press Association 2010