The NIDDK Disorders of Gastrointestinal Interoception Consortium Clinical Centers (DGIC)

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Diseases and Nutrition (NIDDK) seeks to advance its mission by continuing the work of the NIDDK Gastroparesis Consortium (GpCRC) but also to expand its scope. The collaborative efforts of the GpCRC provided a large database, the Gastroparesis Registry, which is located in the NIDDK central repository and contains information on patients with symptoms of either delayed or normal gastric emptying. It also houses the first U.S. registry of children and adolescents with gastroparesis. The GpCRC provided clarity and insight that set the stage for transforming our understanding of gastroparesis and laid out a road map for approaching other disorders of gastrointestinal (GI) motility. The findings from clinical studies and trials clearly demonstrated that the clinical burden of gastroparesis is significantly greater than previously realized and involves much more than the stomach. Importantly, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

Interoception is the ability of the nervous system to sense, interpret and coordinate signals from various bodily systems including the gastrointestinal tract. Many functional GI disorders are associated with a spectrum of overlapping symptoms including nausea, vomiting, and altered bowel habits all of which involve altered interoceptive signaling. This initiative would broaden the scope beyond gastroparesis to include other adult and pediatric GI conditions associated with impaired interoceptive processing to form a Disorders of Gastrointestinal Interoception Consortium (DGIC). The consortium may include up to 6 Clinical Research Centers and a Scientific Data Research Center (SDRC, described in a companion notice). There would be an emphasis on multidisciplinary approaches that would reveal the underlying mechanisms that connect GI function (e.g motility) more directly to symptoms, identify disease or response biomarkers that assess treatment efficacy, and leverage state-of-the-art technologies to identify novel therapeutic targets that could be assessed in future clinical trials.