title: Insights from immunology: new targets for new drugs?
abstract: Rapid advances in our understanding of inflammatory bowel diseases have resulted from the synthesis of data from experimental and genetic studies. These have suggested a wide range of potential immunological targets with both local and systemic scope. Drugs to several of these targets have now reached phase I/II studies, and are discussed in the context of their scientific rationale. However, despite the advent of new classes of therapeutics targeting cellular trafficking and intracellular mediators of cytokine signalling, the armamentarium of effective therapeutics remains sparse. Only with more detailed experimental medicine studies will this imbalance be resolved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK. Electronic address: tr223@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Raine
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000502:physiology; D007167:Immunotherapy; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000276:immunology
keywords: Crohn's disease; Immunotherapeutics; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Innate immunity; Mucosal immunology; Therapeutics; Ulcerative colitis