GRAMPUS-CF: Understanding gut symptoms in people with CF

A study to understand different patterns of gut symptoms in people with CF and what causes them

One of the top research priorities in the CF community is:

How can we relieve gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms such as stomach pain, bloating and nausea in people with CF?

To help answer this question, we need to understand the different patterns of symptoms that may occur in people with CF and what goes wrong in the body to cause these symptoms (we call this the ‘mechanism’). If we understand this correctly, we can choose treatments that are likely to help relieve symptoms and test these in clinical trials.

There will be two parts to the study: Part 1 and Part 2.

In this Part 1, researchers will observe diet and gut symptoms by asking you to complete questionnaires and give blood and stool (poo) samples at the beginning of the study, after 6 months, and after 12 months. They will use these to assess things like the gut microbiome (germs found in poo) and gut inflammation. Some people will also be asked to have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the abdomen. Part 1 has now concluded.

In Part 2, researchers will observe diet and gut symptoms by asking you to complete questionnaires at the beginning of the study, after 6 months, and after 12 months.

This study is being run by a Strategic Research Centre (SRC), funded by Cystic Fibrosis Trust, known as GRAMPUS-CF: Gut Research Advancing a Mechanistic and Personalised Understanding of Symptoms in Cystic Fibrosis.

Find out more about the GRAMPUS-CF SRC here.