New Approaches in the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) commonly refers to ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn disease (CD), which are chronic inflammatory diseases of the GI tract of unknown etiology. This inflammatory response is most likely made possible by defects in both the mucosal immune system and the barrier function of the intestinal epithelium. Many conventional treatments are used to inhibit inflammation and suppress the immunological response like 5-amino salicylic acid, Corticosteroids, antibiotics etc. Recently biological therapy involving specific molecular players which are specialized proteins interfering with the body's inflammatory response are targeted for treatment of IBD Promising targets include tumor necrosis factor TNF-alpha, interleukins, adhesion molecules, colony-stimulating factors, and others. Elevation of cAMP by PDE4 inhibition and selective COX-2 inhibition is a new option to treat inflammatory bowel disease.