RESEARCH UPDATES

What’s New on the Research Front with CIRS?

I am excited to announce that I am the Director of the CIRS Data Repository for the CIRS Research Foundation. We are working hard to create the biggest and most innovative research enterprise devoted to CIRS. We have been able to generate momentum in creating the infrastructure required for conducting research thanks to the money that was collected from The CIRS Summit.

If you haven't done so yet, make sure to check out the talk that Dr. Margaret DiTulio and I gave at CIRSx last year on how histamine, MARCoNs, and other factors can contribute to MSH deficiency and stall full CIRS recovery.

For those of you who don’t know, over 90% of CIRS patients develop a deficiency in MSH, one of the major hormones that helps keep the immune system, hormones, and mucosal linings (aka leaky gut) in check. As such, restoring MSH levels is ESSENTIAL for CIRS patients to feel like themselves again, but there is a lot of discussion about whether patients can or cannot fully restore it. And in this talk, Dr. DiTulio and I show data suggesting that they can!

I wrote two blog posts in the CIRS Lab Patient Membership breaking down the key findings from this talk and pointing out some of the critical patient take-aways.

Relatedly, I am working with a team to publish the first ever research study that shows a statistical association between MARCoNs and deficiency in MSH. Importantly, we show that when MARCoNs is successfully treated, the MSH starts going back up. We hope to have this paper published by the end of the year. Stay tuned!

Lastly, I want to share one of the latest publications on CIRS, which you can download here. This is an amazing overview paper that puts together all the research that has been published to date. If you need to formally introduce CIRS to a doctor, a professional, or a friend/colleague/family member who wants to understand the illness, make sure to always start with this paper!