A single variation in your genome may determine whether you spend your holiday on tour or on the toilet.

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Gene variety increases susceptibility
A variation on the gene that encodes the inflammatory protein interleukin-8 (IL-8) increases a person's susceptibility to a relatively new food-borne bacterial infection called enteroaggregative Escherichia coli diarrhoea (EAEC diarrhoea).

This pathogen has emerged in the last decade and is responsible for more than one in every four cases of traveller's diarrhoea.

The link between the genetic variation and a person's susceptibility to EAEC diarrhoea was found by researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center. Their study appears in the Aug. 15 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Significance of findings
The researchers say their findings may help improve risk assessment, treatment and vaccine development for EAEC diarrhoea.

Eventually this information can be used to screen people to determine who should receive preventive antibiotic therapy, vaccination, or in some cases should be advised against foreign travel, lead author Zhi-Dong Jiang, an assistant professor of biological sciences, says in a news release.

He and his colleagues used new techniques that allow human DNA to be purified from faecal matter to determine why some people infected with EAEC suffer symptoms while others do not. - (HealthDayNews)

Read more:
Travel Centre
Vaccine eyed for diarrhoea

 

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