Project Details
Projekt
In vivo endoscopic molecular imaging to predict therapeutic response to anti-adhesion molecule therapy in Crohn's disease patients
Applicant
Professor Dr. Raja Atreya
Subject Area
Gastroenterology
Term
from 2015 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 190140969
The advent of biological therapies has greatly enhanced our therapeutic possibilities In Crohn's disease patients. However, about 40% do not respond to these agents. It is therefore of high clinical relevance to find a predictor for response to biological treatment. In a previous study we demonstrated that topical administration of a fluorescent anti-TNF antibody led to the detection of Intestinal mTNF+ Immune cells during confocal laser endomicroscopy. Patients with high amounts of mTNF+ cells showed significantly higher response upon subsequent anti-TNF therapy compared to patients with low amounts of mTNF+ cells. Aim of the proposed study is the in vivo visualization of a4ß7 bearing mucosal cells in Crohn's disease patients by an endoscopic molecular Imaging procedure with a fluorescent ant-adhesion molecule antibody directed against the a4ß7 integrin. The amount of a4ß7+ cells will be correlated to the clinical response to therapy with an antl-a4ß7 antibody and might serve as a predictive biomarker regarding therapeutic efficacy. These data could further indicate that molecular imaging with fluorescent antibodies has the potential to predict therapeutic responses to biological treatments and open new avenues for personalized medicine in Crohn's disease.
DFG Programme
Clinical Research Units
