Cecilia Gelfi
Italy
Title: Towards personalized therapy of IBD: identification of specific serum and lipid profile for responders versus non-responders to anti-TNF treatment by Maldi mass spectrometry
Biography
Biography: Cecilia Gelfi
Abstract
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic and relapsing inflammatory conditions of the gastrointestinal tract and comprise Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Both CD and UC are characterized by a great extent of heterogeneity, in terms of phenotypic presentation and response to different therapies; in fact, whereas some patients present limited bowel involvement and a very mild course of disease, others develop very extensive, aggressive disease, displaying extraintestinal manifestations as well. On the same line, the efficacy of different therapeutic strategies is extremely variable from patient to patient. As such, a subset of IBD may require the use of biological drugs targeting TNF, which is a key mediator in IBD inflammatory response; however, up to 10-20% of patients do not respond to anti-TNF agents. Thus, studies to define subgroups of patients with UC and CD who may benefit from TNF-blockade are needed. To this purpose, a study based on serum and lipid profiling of patients affected by UC and CD has been performed utilizing Maldi mass spectrometry profiling to identify specific markers of therapeutic response. The study was conducted on UC and CD patients of both genders andpatients were followed up to the fourth infusionin order to evaluate response to anti-TNF antibody treatment. Results indicated a difference in serum profiling between men and women after treatment. The analysis of UC responders and non-responders to anti-TNF treatment revealed the presence of 43 peaks, so called best separators between cohorts. Concerning CD, Maldi profiles indicated significant statistical difference in 48 peaks. Comparing UC and CD, the presence of peaks (29 for men, 15 for women) characteristics of the disease was determined. The identification of peaks is in progress and will determine target molecules contributing to clarify the physiopathological mechanisms associated to anti-TNF response. Nevertheless, the serological profile provided by this study will contribute to select the right candidates to anti-TNF treatment.