New Target For Immunotherapy

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New Target For Immunotherapy

Description

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn's disease have been thought

to result from maladaptive immune responses to normal bacteria in the gut,

but identifying the specific offending antigens among the 2 million present

in the intestines has been a challenge to scientists.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn's disease have been thought

to result from maladaptive immune responses to normal bacteria in the gut,

but identifying the specific offending antigens among the 2 million present

in the intestines has been a challenge to scientists. UAB investigators

Yingzi Cong, Ph.D., O. Elson, M.D., and colleagues report they have

identified bacterial flagellins as a class of immunodominant antigens in IBD

from studies using mouse models. Their findings were reported in the May 1

Journal of Clinical Investigation. " Importantly, studies found that 40-50

percent of sera from patients with Crohn¹s disease react in much the same

way as they do in the colitic mice. Now we have what may serve as a target

for immunotherapy.²