Sharing a patients experience with Chrons and Leukine drug

There was a clinical trial of Leukine here in the US that was finally abandoned before it got to Phase 3 trials I believe. While it is true that some people had improvement in their symptoms, overall it was not consistent. My son was in the pediatric wing of the Phase 2 clinical trial.

The clinical trial was structured so that you had to do a subcutaneous injection daily. Leukine shots hurt - worse than Humira. There was also a lot of injection site reactions among participants that caused problems. My son got huge welts and it didn't do anything for his CD.

Leukine stimulates the rapid response part of the immune system causing WBC counts to skyrocket - my son's were 18,000+.

The theory was that, for some people with CD, the rapid response part of the immune system that is the first defense against bacteria and viruses isn't working right. When bacteria and viruses get into the gut they aren't beaten off quickly like they're supposed to be. So the longer acting part of the immune system has to fight them. Once the longer acting immune response was started it couldn't stop.

So, the researchers thought that Leukine might work because it causes a huge increase in the number of WBCs that are supposed to fight off bacteria and viruses when you are first exposed to them. They figured that if you had a whole lot of WBCs you would then have enough sheer numbers of WBCs to kill off the bacteria and viruses before the longer acting part of the immune system got activated.

Like in a game - one little pea shooter doesn't do much good against a zombie but 10 of them works great. Same idea.

Glad your acquaintance had a good experience. Hope it works for him for a long time.

Patricia