{"id":223079,"date":"2025-10-08T07:07:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T12:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/bacterial-enzyme-and-nanoparticle-discoveries-hold-promise-for-treating-gut-pain"},"modified":"2025-10-08T07:07:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T12:07:05","slug":"bacterial-enzyme-and-nanoparticle-discoveries-hold-promise-for-treating-gut-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/bacterial-enzyme-and-nanoparticle-discoveries-hold-promise-for-treating-gut-pain","title":{"rendered":"Bacterial enzyme and nanoparticle discoveries hold promise for treating gut pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/bacterial-enzyme-and-nanoparticle-discoveries-hold-promise-for-treating-gut-pain.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Abdominal pain is a hallmark of many digestive disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. In an effort to develop targeted treatments for gut pain, scientists have discovered a new enzyme in gut bacteria and are using nanoparticles to deliver drugs inside cells.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, there are no treatments specifically for gut pain, and existing painkillers are often insufficient at managing symptoms. These drugs\u2014including opioids, NSAIDs, and steroids\u2014also come with side effects, some of which directly harm the digestive system.<\/p>\n<p>In two new studies published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cell-host-microbe\/abstract\/S1931-3128(25)00376-2\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Cell Host &amp; Microbe<\/i><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2412687122\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/i><\/a>, researchers focused on PAR<sub>2<\/sub>, a receptor involved in pain signaling that has been shown to play a role in <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2022-01-scientists-reveal-mechanism-colon-pain.html\" target=\"_blank\">gastrointestinal diseases marked by inflammation and pain<\/a>. Found on the lining of the gut and on pain-sensing nerves in the gut, PAR<sub>2<\/sub> is activated by certain enzymes called proteases and is a promising target for treating gut pain\u2014in numerous ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abdominal pain is a hallmark of many digestive disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. In an effort to develop targeted treatments for gut pain, scientists have discovered a new enzyme in gut bacteria and are using nanoparticles to deliver drugs inside cells. Currently, there are no treatments specifically for gut pain, and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-nanotechnology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}