Interesting article on cause of IBD

An interesting discussion about it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ulcerativecolitis/comments/1d8sore/major_cause_of_idb_discovered/

https://www.reddit.com/r/crohnsdisease/comments/1d8ttgp/major_cause_of_inflammatory_bowel_disease_found/

Top comment by reddit username: Uberg33k

Eh, that should be more like "A probable cause of IBD looks statistically likely".

They haven't validated this in human trials nor the treatment to reverse the condition. Still, it's always good to see lots of smart people doing good work to help fight auto immune diseases. Also, super validating if this is right; we tell people UC/Chrohn's has a genetic component and this verifies it.

The treatment they keep alluding to, but never naming is a MEK1/2 inhibitor called trametinib (Mekinist) which is a anticancer drug that's already FDA approved. There's also binimetinib (Mektovi), cobimetinib (Cotellic), selumetinib (Koselugo) which are all also FDA approved for various cancers. Hopefully that means approval for UC won't take quite as long. I'm calling these out so that if you're at the end of your drug list and nothing worked, maybe you can talk to your gastro about getting an off label prescription to try one of these?

Comment by username: antimodez

This is definitely interesting. It's more talking about how they found another pathway (MEK 1/2) that blocking could lead to more successful treatments. That's really where the drugs are going these days as things like Rinvoq block other pathways. That's different than biologics which block only a specific inflammatory cytokine that is released by activation of one of those pathways. The bad news is since pathways lead to the release of multiple different cytokines blocking them tends to come with more side effects.

Likely some pharma company will start to try to develop drugs that block that pathway, and in a few years we'll start to see trials.

Related articles here:

https://www.crick.ac.uk/news-and-reports/2024-06-05_major-cause-of-inflammatory-bowel-disease-discovered

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1wwdd6v2wjo

Media always sensationalizes research for the clicks but that research is always much more muted and cautious about it's potential and the path ahead of more research necessary before drawing such conclusions.

Those of us are this for decades are used to such things of a cure always just around the corner but if never materializes. Hey I'd love to be wrong . But with my luck, I'll be freshly planted in a box 6 feet under and the very next day they'll announce a cure XD

iPoop said...


The treatment they keep alluding to, but never naming is a MEK1/2 inhibitor called trametinib (Mekinist) which is a anticancer drug that's already FDA approved. There's also binimetinib (Mektovi), cobimetinib (Cotellic), selumetinib (Koselugo) which are all also FDA approved for various cancers. Hopefully that means approval for UC won't take quite as long. I'm calling these out so that if you're at the end of your drug list and nothing worked, maybe you can talk to your gastro about getting an off label prescription to try one of these?

Have they even done any animal research using these meds for UC? Cancer drugs can cause LOTS of side effects so not sure this is something a doc would prescribe off label. But you never know.