Not everyone responds equally well to treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). What will work for individual patients involves trial and error during the treatment process. Now, a team of researchers led by Charité – Universitätsmedizin, in collaboration with colleagues in Berlin and Bonn, has succeeded in identifying a biomarker that indicates whether or not treatment with a certain medication called an immunomodulator will be successful.
Writing in the journal Gastroenterology ,* the researchers note that this will permit more targeted use of the therapy. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) takes multiple forms, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. It is caused by an overactive immune response in the gastrointestinal tract.
People with the disease experience abdominal cramping, diarrhea, and fatigue. There is no cure; so far, the only treatment has been to alleviate symptoms and control inflammation. "As a clinical scientist, I am actively involved in patient care," says Prof.
Ahmed Hegazy from the Department of Gastroenterology, Infectious Diseases and Rheumatology at Charité. "This disease involves episodes known as flares, which are often unpredictable, so the treatment is constantly being adjusted. So far, it has not been possible to predict the individual course of the disease or how patients will respond to various treatment options, which is what makes treatment so challenging.
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