Building better bugs to deliver biologics in intestinal inflammation.

摘要

Despite intense effort, the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease lack fully effective therapies for all patients. Current therapies include small molecules (anti-inflammatory agents and immunosuppressives) as well as biologies, which predominantly are antibody-based therapeutics that target specific facets of the inflammatory cascade, such as cytokines.1 Small molecule therapeutics suffer from their lack of specificity and thus the potential for significant side effects; this is particularly the case for systemic steroids, which remain the mainstay of therapy for many patients with severe IBD.