Khaberni - Japanese molecular biologists have discovered that licorice extract contains a substance that inhibits intestinal inflammation associated with the development of Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and other chronic gastrointestinal diseases.
According to the press release from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), this discovery paves the way for the development of natural treatments for these diseases.
The statement indicates that the number of people suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases is increasing rapidly around the world, with over 4 million people currently affected. Scientists from Japan have developed a new approach to finding treatments for these diseases based on stem cell cultivation. This approach has helped them find that glycyrrhizin, found in licorice, is especially effective in inhibiting inflammation and significantly reducing intestinal cell death.
Professor Ryuichiro Sato from the University of Tokyo made this discovery during experiments on what is known as organoids—researchers use this term to describe the three-dimensional cellular structures cultured from stem cells, which mimic the structure, organization, and interactions of human intestines and are used to study diseases and discover treatments for them.
Based on this, molecular biologists were able to grow a large number of organoids from stem cells of Crohn's disease patients and observed their response to a collection of 3500 molecules extracted from various natural sources.
The results showed that glycyrrhizin, a component of licorice root extract, was exceptionally effective in inhibiting inflammation and preventing widespread intestinal cell death.
Subsequent studies of the interaction between glycyrrhizin and the organoids revealed that it affects the cells in a way that is completely different from other anti-inflammatory drugs. This compound inhibited a series of enzymes and signaling molecules related to the protein CASP8, which plays a central role in stimulating programmed cell death, a self-destruction program for cells.
The professor points out that the results of testing glycyrrhizin on the intestines of mice with ulcerative colitis showed that this substance significantly reduced the size of inflammatory lesions and accelerated the healing of affected intestinal areas. This suggests that glycyrrhizin could form the basis for new drugs for Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and other inflammatory bowel diseases.
