Editorial: an apple a day keeps colitis away.

摘要

IBD often presents in childhood and persists throughout life [1]. CD and UC are the best-known forms and carry an elevated risk of colon cancer [2]. Dysfunction of the intestinal immune system is a major mechanism by which chronic inflammation occurs in colitis. Failure to regulate T cell responses in the intestinal or colonic mu-cosa leads to an inappropriate and sustained immunologic reaction, causing tissue injury. As a result of recent advances in the understanding of the mechanisms underlying IBD, diere have been several drugs introduced into the market over the past 20 years. These conventional colitis treatments reduce periods of active disease and maintain remission, but treatment outcomes are often marginal, patients become refractory, and there are dangerous side-effects, including cancer and death. It is thought that these side-effects result, in part, because some of the drugs have broad specificity and do not target any single type of white blood cell (e.g., cor-ticosteroids).