Cancer Drugs used to treat Chrones Disease

New cancer drugs could help regulate body's immune system and thus help fight Chrones disease according to some researchers in the US. Known as histone deacetylases inhibitors, or HDACs, the new cancer drugs might work extremely well in blocking the over active immune systems in people who have autoimmune diseases including chrones disease.

Wayne Hancock of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia says that this treatment for Crohn's disease would improve the immune systems ability to actually regulate itself and in the one study carried out on mice, the drug helped reverse and even prevent inflammatory bowel disease as well as prevented the rejection of heart transplants in other mice.

Up till now, the drug has mostly been used in studying cancer, but that could change and more tests could soon be done for diseases like Chrones disease.

Australians with Chrones Disease to get further help

People who suffer with Chrones Disease in Australia are to receive more help
There has been some excellent news for those of you with Chrons disease, an inflammatory bowel condition (IBD) and who are living in Australia as it has been announced that sufferers will be able to receive susidised treatments.

Remicade
Remicade (infliximab) will be added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in Ausralia (PBS). The Minister for Health in Australia, said Chrones disease has a huge effect on the professional, family and social life of sufferers and that the Australian Government would do what it could to help.

Chrones Disease Symptoms
The main symptoms include fever, weight loss or even anorexia, tiredness and joint pain. An people with active Chrones disease, sometimes called a flare up often experience chronic abdominal pain, diarrhoea and bowel movements that conain blood.

An expected 2,000 people will probably start on Remicade for the treatment of Chrones disease in Australia in the first year of its listing and this inclusion of Remicade to the PBS will probably cost around $53.9 million Australian Dollars over the next four years.

Tysabri Approved for Chrones Disease Treatment

People with Chrones Disease have some excellent news in that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a drug called Tysabri (natalizumab) to treat people with chrones disease who have not yet responded to other forms of treatment.

Tysabri has potentially some pretty serious side effects and because of this people with chrones disease who are using the drug Tysabri will also be enrolled in a program that restricts distribution called Crohn's Disease-Tysabri Outreach Unified Commitment to Health (CD-TOUCH). Some of the possible side effects of Tysabri include anaphylactic reactions,possible liver injury, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (a viral infection that affects the brain. This viral infection could cause severe disability or even death.)

The CD-TOUCH program will allow physicians to check people with chrones disease that are using Tysabri after three months, if there is no sign of improvement Tysabri will no longer be perscribed.

Tysabri was approved way back in 2006 for the treatment of patients suffering from elapsing multiple sclerosis and now has to go ahead to be used on Chrones Disease sufferers. It is produced by Elan, a company based in Ireland as well as Biogen Idec in the US and will used on patients with chrones who have yet to respond to any other forms of treatment


What is Chrones Disease?
Chrones Disease affects the bowel. It is incurable and the symptoms include diarrhea, fever, rectal bleeding, malnutrition, narrowing of the intestines, cramping, and abdominal pain. More than 1 million people around the world have chrones disease.

The disease can also lead to abnormal connections in the gut which are called fistulas these connections grow from the intestines to the skin or internal organs.

Details of the Drug
Drug Name: TYSABRI (Brand Name Drug)
Company: BIOGEN IDEC
FDA Application No. (BLA) 125104
Active Ingredient: NATALIZUMAB
Original Approval or Tentative Approval Date: November 23, 2004

A link between Farm Animals and Chrones Disease?

Some recent research suggests that Early exposure to farm animals lowers the risk of Chrones Disease or ulcerative colitis (IBD)

The conclusions of a German study published in the journal Pediatrics say that if you are exposed to farm animals often when a child or baby you are less likely than others to develop Chrones disease or ulcerative colitis during your childhood. This is according to the findings .

Chrones Disease in Germany
In Germany there are over 10000 children and young adults who suffer from either chrones disease or ulcerative colitis (inflammatory bowel disease / IBD) according to Dr. Katja Radon at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich.

Chrones Disease in the first world
In industrialized countries like the UK, Germany and the USA, there has been a recent increase in Crohn's disease (a type of inflammatory bowel disease) suggests that there are environmental factors that contribute to chrones disease.

The German team examined the link between contact with farm animals as a baby and the development of Chrones disease or ulcerative colitis in childhood. The findings were analysed for 748 people with IBD, 444 with Chrones disease, 304 with ulcerative colitis and 1,481 healthy children who were used as the control.

The restults showed that the children with inflammatory bowel disease were more likely than the control children to live in urban areas and regular contact with farm animals during the first year of life was inversely associated with IBD, the investigators report.

The children with chrones disease or ulcerative colitis were about 50 percent less likely to have regular contact with farm animals in infancy compared with the healthy children.So these findings seem to indicate that contact with farm animal during infancy is one of the major factors protecting children against allergies and might also decrease the risk of Chrones Disease or ulcerative colitis in children Radon's team concludes. The findings also back up the theory that allergic diseases and IBD might have similar paths of development.

Chrones Disease source: Pediatrics, August 2007.