The role of stem cells for “rebooting” the immune system and offering a cure for Crohn’s disease is under microscope with University of Nottingham researchers launching a major clinical trial to find the same.

The researchers are ascertaining whether stem cells obtained from a patient’s own body can be used to offer effective, long-term remissions for tens of thousands of people.

From News-Medical.Net:

The Europe-wide trial, which is currently recruiting patients, is the first of its kind in the world to treat Crohn’s. The disease is a chronic ongoing condition that most commonly affects the small intestine and colon. It causes inflammation, deep ulcers and scarring to the wall of the intestine, with main symptoms including pain in the abdomen, diarrhoea, fatigue and weight loss.

It affects around 60,000 people in the UK, with 3-6,000 new cases being diagnosed each year. Currently it has no cure. Normal treatment includes steroids, which cannot be taken long-term, and immune suppressant drugs.

But if the Nottingham-led stem cell therapy is successful, Professor Chris Hawkey and colleagues Dr Paul Fortun and Dr Tony Shonde believe that in the future it could just possibly mean a cure for up to 50 per cent of sufferers. The study is featured on a new TV series starting on November 1 on the Community Channel.

The stem cell study into Crohn’s Disease at The University of Nottingham is funded by the Broad Medical Research Program of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in California.

Tags: Crohn's disease, stem cells, steroids

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According to a recent study by the Mayo Clinic, administration of infliximab (Remicade) alone or in a combination with azathioprine may prove to be the most effective form of treatment than azathioprine alone for curing moderate to severe Crohn’s disease in patients.

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory ailment of the human gastrointestinal tract that is believed to affect as much as 500,000 people in the United States alone. No definite cure has yet been discovered for this ailment.

In the past, patients suffering from this disease have been treated sequentially with some form of steroids followed by azathioprine and thereafter by monoclonal anti-bodies like infliximab.

However, infliximab-based medical strategies to cure Crohn’s disease are far more effective than treatment with azathioprine as per William Sandborn, M.D., the lead author and a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic.

From News-Medical.Net:

The study, conducted at more than 200 sites, included 508 patients who have moderate to severe Crohn’s disease. Researchers found that 57 percent of patients who received combination therapy with infliximab and azathioprine achieved steroid-free remission after 26 weeks. This is compared to 44 percent of patients who achieved remission with infliximab monotherapy and 30 percent with azathioprine alone. Both the infliximab combination therapy and infliximab monotherapy groups were statistically superior to the azathioprine group. In addition, 61 percent of patients who received the combination therapy of infliximab and azathioprine also experienced healing of the bowel demonstrated by colonoscopy (mucosal healing). This is important because previous studies have suggested that patients who have mucosal healing are less likely to require hospitalization and surgery.

“Our goal with this study was to determine if infliximab-based treatment strategies were safe and more effective than treatment with azathioprine in these patients,” says Dr. Sandborn. “For patients, this new therapy is an opportunity for remission and a significant improvement in quality of life.”

This study is expected to create a new paradigm besides offering new, safer opportunities to patients suffering from Crohn’s disease when it comes to improving quality of life.

Tags: azathioprine, Crohn's disease, inflammatory ailment, infliximab, remicade, steroids

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Treating children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) usually involves the same steroids-based medication prescribed to adults. But such treatments can have negative side effects for kids and teens dealing with IBD.

Dr. Raanan Shamir of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine and Schneider Children’s Medical Centre shows that there is another path to treating IBD in children: a nutritional formula that was first developed for astronauts. This supplement puts 60-70% of children with Crohn’s disease, a common IBD disorder, into remission — a success rate similar to that of traditional steroid-based drugs, but without side effects like malnutrition and growth retardation.

From ScienceDaily:

Dr. Shamir’s research was inspired by the problem of malnutrition and growth retardation in children battling IBD. Steroids and other biological agents, the most common treatment for IBD, were having an adverse affect on the children’s growth, despite their effectiveness in adult patients.

Dr. Shamir’s quest to educate the international medical community about the benefits of nutrition therapy has been an uphill battle.

Not all physicians know it works, and it’s much easier to give someone a prescription than try to work with the child.”

Dr. Shamir and his team of researchers have worked to show the international medical community that nutrition was equal to steroids in the treatment of children with IBD. “We published the most recent meta-analysis to show that nutrition is as good as steroids as a first-line therapy for Crohn’s disease,” he says.

According to Dr. Shamir, the specially-designed powder containing all the daily nutrients a person needs which is used by astronauts can help patients with IBD to get all the nutrients they need. Although steroids work better than nutrition-based therapies, researchers suggest that children with IBD should be prescribed with the latter since their growth and nutrition should be given significant considerations.

Tags: Crohn's disease, IBD disorder, steroids

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