IBD-BIOM

Diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for inflammatory bowel disease IBD-BIOM

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Inflammatory bowel diseases affect 0.8% of the Europeans, and are associated with high morbidity, definite mortality and an increasing economic burden. Current diagnostic tools and therapeutics for IBD are unsatisfactory. Development of biomarkers allowing insights into pathogenesis, prognosis and targeted therapy is a major unmet need. This programme addresses that need. IBD-BIOM is a multidisciplinary consortium of leading academic and industrial SME researchers in inflammatory bowel disease, genomics, glycomics, glycoproteomics and activomics. Recent genome-wide association studies performed by IBD-BIOM partners have identified nearly 100 genes associated with IBD, but clinical application of these is so far limited. IBD-BIOM will capitalise on its existing high quality clinical, genetic, biochemical and immunological data and biological samples on over 6000 very well characterised IBD patients and controls by exploiting novel technological approaches made available through the expertise and global leading position of IBD-BIOM partners. These comprise cutting edge epigenetic, glycomic, glycoproteomic and activomic approaches which were all previously reported to be associated with inflammation and disturbances to the immune system. The inclusion of these complementary analyses in the diagnostics of IBD should also facilitate elucidation of pathways through which environmental exposures influence IBD risk and progression. A complex systems biology approach will be used to integrate, interrogate and understand this multidimensional dataset to identify novel early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and new targets for therapeutic intervention. The track record of achievement of IBD-BIOM partners coupled to the central and leading positions of the research-intensive SME partners in IBD-BIOM is a strong indication that the ambitions work programme will be achieved and a framework to facilitate swift conversion of research discoveries into commercial products.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involves chronic inflammation of the entire digestive system. European researchers are working to discover biomarkers to improve disease prognosis and clinical management.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

IBD affects approximately 2 to 3 million people in Europe alone, causing significant discomfort and suffering. In its extreme form as Crohn's disease, it requires surgery and often has dismal prognosis. It is now widely accepted that a better clinical outcome would be attained through prompt diagnosis and early treatment.

This requires the discovery of specific biomarkers to both diagnose and stratify patients according to disease severity. With this in mind, scientists on the EU-funded 'Diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for inflammatory bowel disease IBD-BIOM' (http://www.ibdbiom.eu/ (IBD-BIOM)) project have joined forces to identify biomarkers for IBD.

Based on a large number of previously bio-banked samples, the plan is to combine patient phenotypic information with omics data. Patient samples will be analysed at the epigenetic, glycomic, glycoproteomic and activomic levels. Epigenetically, researchers hope to identify genome-wide changes in DNA methylation associated with an altered gene expression at different stages of IBD course.

Using high-throughput liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry technology, IBD-BIOM will also analyse the glycosylation of the plasma IgG molecules and link them to IBD inflammation. Preliminary data indicate that in response to inflammation the pattern of IgG glycosylation changes. A similar analysis of the differentially glycosylated proteins will be performed in gut samples from IBD patients. So far, a number of interesting IBD-related hits have been identified and are being further investigated.

A significant project achievement is the development of activomics, a novel technology established by one of the IBD-BIOM partners for biomarker discovery. Activomics analyses the enzymes responsible for post-translational modifications (phosphorylation, glycosylation or proteolysis). During inflammation higher levels of proteases are evident, but how this is linked to IBD onset and progression is currently unknown.

By combining genetic, epigenetic and glycomic information the IBD-BIOM consortium hopes to discover biomarkers that are associated with the different stages of IBD. Their activities are being disseminated through the project website where patient videos provide an extra testimonial on life with IBD.