Challenges in IBD research: Assessing progress and rethinking the research agenda

✍ Scribed by William F. Stenson; Scott B. Snapper

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 190 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1078-0998
• DOI: 10.1002/ibd.20371

✦ Synopsis

U nder the aegis of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, a group of leading basic and clinical researchers came together in 1990 to assess the state of scientific knowledge and treatment for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and to create a blueprint for the foundation's research program. The participants produced a white paper called "Challenges in IBD Research," naming a set of research priorities that were considered both urgent and timely.

The foundation has convened similar meetings every few years, updated its research agenda, and published a white paper accordingly. The most recent Challenges document, published in 2003 in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, described the complex and active communication that takes place between bacterial flora, the epithelium, and the immune cells in the intestine. Perturbation of these interactions can result in chronic intestinal inflammation. These observations generated the hypothesis that "Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is due to an abnormal cell-mediated immune reaction-primarily by CD4ϩ T cells-to the antigens and adjuvants of the enteric bacteria in genetically susceptible hosts." Research over the past 4 years has largely supported this hypothesis.

In May 2007 a broad group of investigators convened to review progress in IBD research since 2003 and to generate a new set of research priorities for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. Although our major working hypothesis has not changed, research advances have allowed us to define our priorities more precisely. Significant strides in basic IBD research have taken place principally in 4 areas: