New research seeks to better understand the role of the gut microbiome in Crohn’s disease
Researchers will study the role the gut microbiome plays in post-operative outcomes for patients with Crohn’s disease.
Researchers will study the role the gut microbiome plays in post-operative outcomes for patients with Crohn’s disease.
Scientists will study how altering the gut microbiome through a 6-week treatment of specially formulated nutritional drinks could influence post-operative outcomes and disease recurrence in adult patients with Crohn’s disease.
The clinical trial will be led by Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Birmingham and will form part of a wider study led by Professor Konstantinos Gerasimidis from the University of Glasgow.
The MI-OCEAN (Microbiome analysis of the Optimisation before Crohn’s surgery using Exclusive Enteral Nutrition) study, funded by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, also includes collaborators from University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, the Earlham Institute, the University of Strathclyde.
We are thrilled to be able to expand our existing OCEAN study beyond the clinic to the laboratory. We will compare Crohn’s patients who have taken a prescribed nutritional drink to those who maintained their usual diet and find out whether the drink had any impact on their recovery after surgery.
Researchers will explore whether changes in the gut microbiome induced by six weeks of pre-surgery Exclusive Enteral Nutrition (EEN) – a specially prescribed nutritional drinks which substitute a patient’s entire diet leading up to surgery – can predict post-operative outcomes, including wound infections, and reduce the risk of disease recurrence in adults with Crohn’s disease.
To achieve this, the team will compare changes in gut microbiome’s composition and function from patients receiving EEN prior to surgery with those maintaining their usual diets. The study team will also further investigate whether maintaining any EEN-induced microbial changes at six weeks and six months after surgery correlates with a lower risk of disease recurrence.
The MI-OCEAN team aims to identify the microbiome mechanisms that influence patients’ surgical outcomes and to better understand why some patients recover better than others. The team plans to use artificial intelligence to test whether including personal microbiome signatures in clinical data will enhance the prediction of patient outcomes, when compared with routine clinical data alone.
Professor Gerasimidis said: “We are delighted to receive this significant grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust. Decoding the microbial mechanisms of action of EEN could help develop more tolerable dietary and pharmacological therapies and offer insights in underpinning pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease. Prognosticating risk of post-operative outcomes and subsequent disease relapse means preventive treatment strategies can be implemented promptly.”
Dr Shefali Soni, Program Officer at the Helmsley Charitable Trust said: “Helmsley is committed to supporting research that advances our understanding of the interactions between diet and gut microbiota in people with Crohn’s disease. This grant offers a unique opportunity to explore the role of gut microbiomes in surgical patients with Crohn’s disease receiving an EEN protocol. There is a need to investigate cost-effective measures that may reduce complications following surgery, an important management strategy for Crohn’s disease.”
The new MI-OCEAN will form part of the ongoing NIHR-HTA (National Institute for Health and Care Research-Health Technology Assessment Programme) funded OCEAN study, led by the University of Birmingham, which seeks to understand whether pre-operative EEN is clinically more effective to reduce post-operative outcomes compared with usual diet in patients undergoing surgery for Crohn’s disease. Although EEN shows promise as a pre-operative optimisation strategy, randomised control trials are necessary before it can be part of the recommended Crohn’s disease management guidelines.
Ultimately, this work will help us understand how this diet impacts gut immunology, with the aim of providing more personalised care to people with Crohn’s disease.
Staff profile for Professor Helen McGettrick, Professor of Inflammation and Vascular Biology, Department of Inflammation and Ageing, College of Medicine and Health, the University of Birmingham
Staff profile of Dr Asif Iqbal, Professor of Inflammation Biology, at Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham