Intestinal epithelial cell stress modulates enteric fibroblastic and neuronal profiles in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

C. Escudero-Hernández © C. Escudero-Hernández

Background & aim of research

This project aimed to understand the effects that crucial IBD epithelial stress factors (i.e. ATG16L1 and XBP1 impairments) might have in enteric fibroblasts and neurons.

Dear IBD Colleagues and Friends, 

Warm greetings from the ECCO News Team!

This year, the entire ECCO Team has again worked hard to organise a top quality meeting, which will take place in the inclusive and welcoming city of Stockholm, home of environmental sustainability! Therefore, we would like to invite all of you to the 19^th Congress of ECCO, to be held from February 21 to 24, 2024.

On this occasion, the ECCO Scientific Programme will be structured around the main topic “Crossing borders in IBD”. We want to cross borders because we are searching, because we want more, because we want to expand our horizons and because we want borderless research in IBD.

Britta Siegmund © ECCO

Dear ECCO Friends,

This is the final edition of ECCO News for 2023. It is an appropriate time to reflect on past activities and look forward to ECCO 2024 “Crossing Boarders” in Stockholm. It is worth noting that at the end of 2023, ECCO has reached a new record number of 4596 members!

The theme of the 2024 congress is “Crossing Boarders”, indicating that ECCO aims to expand its global IBD network. This issue emphasizes two initiatives: the new ECCO Global grant and the recently initiated ECCO Consensus on IBD in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The 2024 congress will discuss and highlight IBD around the world, facilitating network building. The preview of the programme is available here.

Until the year 2016, the probiotic blend sold under the brand name VSL#3® contained the formulation that is known as the De Simone Formulation (DSF). This specific formulation was the subject of extensive scientific research and demonstrated proven efficacy in the management of inflammatory bowel diseases.

For the record, it is imperative to acknowledge that final and non-appealable judgments have been rendered by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland in the year 2019, as well as by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2021. These judicial determinations mandated the immediate cessation of deceptive advertising practices by the distributors of VSL#3® and awarded damages in the sum of $18 million USD in favor of Professor De Simone and his United States-based entity, Exegi Pharma, LLC. These verdicts carry transnational implications as the product VSL#3® that is distributed both within the United States and internationally is identical. Consequently, the legal conclusions reached by the United States judicial system hold global relevance.

Spyros Siakavellas © Spyros Siakavellas

Dear ECCO friends,

Welcome to this interesting discussion with the ECCO National Representatives of Turkey Nalan Gülsen Ünal and Asli Ormeci. We had a great talk mainly about the challenges of treating IBD in Turkey a country with significant diversity in the circumstances of healthcare but also for telemedicine, holistic care implementation of new developments in our field such as biomarkers and intestinal ultrasound and even more topics!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Spyros Siakavellas
ECCO News Associate Editor

Welcome to our series of interviews with the Author. I am Nuha Yassin, a consultant colorectal surgeon in Birmingham, UK, and one of the associate editors for ECCO News. I am delighted to be joined by Parul Tandon from Toronto, Canada.

Robin Dart © ECCO

Tim Raine is a consultant gastroenterologist at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and an honorary faculty member of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He is a mucosal immunologist, and alongside translational science work, he is also heavily involved in clinical trials and guideline development. Despite his relative youth, Tim has been in and around ECCO for many years and is well known to the ECCO Community. After chairing both Y-ECCO and GuiCom, he is now a member of SciCom, reflecting the breadth of his involvement with IBD. I had the opportunity to discuss his work with ECCO and his journey into life as a clinician-scientist.

Gabriele Dragoni © ECCO

Dear Y-ECCO Friends,

The Y-ECCO Mentorship Forum is an educational event designed to foster networking and prepare the career of young gastroenterologists with a particular interest in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. In June 2023, the second edition of the Forum took place in beautiful Vienna, and it certainly did not disappoint.

Anti-integrin αvβ6 autoantibodies are a novel biomarker that antedate ulcerative colitis

Livanos AE, Dunn A, Fischer J, et al.

Gastroenterology 2023;164:619–29. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2022.12.042.

Introduction

Biomarkers for the prediction of disease onset and disease course in Ulcerative Colitis (UC) represent an ongoing and important area of unmet need. However, discovery and validation of such biomarkers has been complicated by the wide heterogeneity in disease presentation and variability in disease course [1]. Despite many initial biomarker discovery efforts in UC focusing on biopsy-based approaches, it has increasingly been recognised that non-invasive blood-based biomarkers would likely have more clinical utility, including because of their ease of collection and high rates of patient acceptance [2, 3].

Previous studies have discovered a novel autoantibody against integrin αvβ6 (anti-αvβ6) in the serum of UC patients, with strong discriminative ability for diagnosis of UC. Integrin αvβ6 plays a critical role in maintaining epithelial barrier integrity and suppressing epithelial inflammation [4–7].

Faecal microbiota transplantation with anti-inflammatory diet (FMT-AID) followed by anti-inflammatory diet alone is effective in inducing and maintaining remission over 1 year in mild to moderate ulcerative colitis: a randomised controlled trial

Kedia S, Virmani S, Vuyyuru SK, et al.

Gut 2022;71:2401–13. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2022-327811.

Introduction

Microbiota are known to play a role in the pathogenesis of both Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD). Various lifestyle factors, including rural living, absence of antibiotic exposure and larger family size, have been associated with greater microbial diversity and lower risk for development of IBD [1, 2]. Conversely, dietary patterns and constituent elements of the diet have been linked to dysbiosis and increased risk of IBD [3, 4]. Despite these associations, the causal relationship between microbiota disturbance and IBD pathogenesis/disease flares remains unclear.

Current therapeutic strategies for IBD primarily focus on targeting the dysregulated immune response. However, these approaches have limitations, including a “ceiling effect” of current treatments and a high risk of relapse following withdrawal of therapy [5]. Consequently, there has been a growing interest in exploring alternative interventions, including through modulation of the gut microbiota or manipulation of dietary factors. Most of the evidence for such therapeutic approaches has focused on CD, including with the use of exclusive enteral nutrition [6]. In UC, microbiota modification has been attempted by faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in cohort studies and in randomised controlled trials. However, heterogeneous protocols, methods, donors, doses and intervals of FMT have all likely contributed to the conflicting evidence base for FMT in UC. Notably, however, a recent meta-analysis has suggested an overall clinical and endoscopic benefit of FMT, at least in the short term, in the treatment of UC [7].