Irritable bowel syndrome (“IBS”) is a condition that affects one in every ten individuals globally. Its symptoms include bowel dysfunction and bloating and abdominal pain among others, which can significantly impact an individual’s life. Before a diagnosis can be made, clinicians usually consider the possibility of other ailments, including bowel cancer and Crohn’s disease. IBS is common in individuals who are prone to anxiety. While its causes aren’t well understood, a group of researchers recently discovered some genes that offer leads into its origin.
The group was made up of more than 40 institutions, with the research being coordinated by researchers in Spain and the United Kingdom. The researchers examined genetic data from nearly 12,900 individuals from the Bellygenes initiative and more than 40,000 individuals suffering from irritable bowel syndrome from the Biobank in the United Kingdom. They then compared this data to the control group, which was made up of 433, 201 individuals who didn’t have the condition, most of whom were of European ancestry.
The Bellygenes initiative is a global study whose objective is to identify genes associated with the condition. The researchers found that the condition’s heritability was very low, showing the importance of environmental factors such as stress, diet and behavior patterns, which may also exist in the family environment.
In addition to this, they discovered genetic differences that were more common in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome than in those in the control group. These differences influenced the BAG6, CKAP2/TPTE2P3, DOCK9, PHF2/FAM120A, CADM2 and NCAM1 genes.
In their report, the researchers explained that having the same genetic make-up that put individuals at increased risk of the condition also increased the risk for common anxiety and mood disorders, including neuroticism, insomnia, depression and anxiety.
It should be noted, however, that the researchers don’t mean that the condition doesn’t cause anxiety and vice versa. Furthermore, they found that those with anxiety and irritable bowel syndrome were more likely to have been treated frequently with antibiotics during their childhood.
The researchers hypothesize that this common use of antibiotics increases the risk of developing the condition because it alters the healthy bacteria living in the gut and impacts an individual’s mood and the development of nerve cells.
This study was supported and funded by National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centers in Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Li KaShing Foundation, among others.
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