A New Approach To Treat/Manage Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Brief Description

Researchers at UCI have developed a safe, inexpensive drug for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.

Full Description

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) refers to a number of diseases that cause inflammation of the colon and small intestine. IBDs include the conditions Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), where intestinal inflammation leads to symptoms such as severe abdominal cramps, pelvic spasms, and nausea. In some cases, the symptoms of IBDs give rise to secondary complications like weight loss and anemia. Currently, more than 1.5 million Americans have some form of IBD, most of whom were diagnosed before the age of 35. Despite its prevalence, chronic inflammatory IBDs (including CD and UC) are not medically curable. Treatment options instead focus on relieving the symptoms of IBDs through controlled diet, drug therapies, and, if necessary, surgical interventions. These treatment options are often highly specific to the particular IBD symptoms of the afflicted patient.

Researchers at UCI have instead developed a drug treatment/management option that targets the root cause of IBD – intestinal inflammation. The drug consists of several safe and readily available vitamins and has been shown in IBD mouse models to completely prevent intestinal inflammation. If successful in humans, this drug could offer the first universal treatment/management for reducing or even preventing the inflammation that leads to IBD.

Suggested uses

• For the reduction of intestinal inflammation commonly associated with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD)

Features/Benefits

• Universal: Vitamin B7 and B5 supplementation targets the root causes of IBD, which is inflammation in the intestine. Unlike other treatment options which target specific symptoms of IBDs, this method could offer the first universal treatment/management for all chronic IBDs.

• Safe and inexpensive: Both vitamins are safe for human consumption and have no known toxicity and are widely commercially available. Additionally, unlike other IBD treatment/management methods, the proposed management/treatment carries no adverse side effects or health risks.

Patent Status

State Of Development

Concept only