A review of standard and novel therapies in Crohn’s disease

Abstract

Crohn’s disease (CD) is one of the inflammatory bowel diseases characterised by transmural inflammation of various segments of the gut. The pathogenesis of the disease remains obscure and medical and surgical therapy is limited. This review highlights the basic clinical features of the disease as well as some recent insights into the aetiology of the disease. Standard medical therapy is discussed and more recent biologic therapies including the use of anti-TNF-α antibodies are described. The changing focus of therapy, from non-specific anti-inflammatory medications to targeted biologic therapies, is reviewed. A number of novel therapeutic targets and patented therapies are reviewed and future directions for research and clinical testing are discussed.

• adhesion molecules
• antibiotics
• Crohn's disease
• cytokine antagonists
• inflammatory bowel diseases
• lymphocyte antagonists
• matrix metalloproteinases
• neuropeptides
• nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB)
• transcription factors
• ulcerative colitis