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Food for thought about the immune drivers of gut pain

Debilitating gut pain is common, but the underlying cause is often unclear. It emerges that gut infection triggers localized immune responses that cause normally innocuous foods to be perceived as harmful, leading to persistent pain.
  1. Stuart M. Brierley

    1. Stuart M. Brierley is in the College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia 5042, Australia, and at the Hopwood Centre for Neurobiology, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide.

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Pain evolved to alert us to and protect us from actual or potential tissue damage. There are three common forms: nociceptive pain, which is associated with the detection of damaging stimuli; inflammatory pain, associated with inflammation or infection; and chronic pain, which is a maladaptive, long-term form of pain1. Writing in Nature, Aguilera-Lizarraga et al.2 report evidence from mice and humans indicating a previously unknown mechanism that contributes to chronic gut pain.

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Nature 590, 41-43 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03661-y

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