An investigation of commonly used IBD drugs on autophagy pathway activity and potential therapeutic benefit for the treatment of paediatric IBD
  Recent genetic discoveries, principally identification of NOD2 and ATG16L1 as susceptibility loci, strongly implicate a dysregulated host response to enteric bacteria and the autophagy pathway in the pathogenesis of Crohn鈥檚 disease (CD). Several microbial causative agents have been identified; of most interest are adherent, invasive E.coli strains (AIEC) that have been isolated from adult and paediatric
patients. Recent studies suggest that increasing autophagy levels in CD patients may be of therapeutic benefit; however few studies have aimed to determine potential manipulation of the autophagic process with currently utilised IBD therapies. We have identified that commonly used IBD drugs affect autophagy induction in vitro.
We now propose to characterise the mechanism of action of these drugs in the context of autophagy, assess their effect on the pathogenicity of CD mucosaassociated AIEC, and investigate their effect on autophagy pathway activity directly in primary cells from paediatric IBD patients.

  • Start Date:

    1 September 2014

  • End Date:

    31 August 2017

  • Activity Type:

    Externally Funded Research

  • Funder:

    Crohn's in Childhood Research Association

  • Value:

    拢68577

Project Team