Inpharma 1327 - 2 Mar 2002

■ The efficacy of thalidomide in inflammatory boweldisease may be mediated via reductions ininflammatory cytokines, say researchers fromGermany. They treated 9 patients with Crohn’s diseaseand 1 patient with ulcerative colitis with thalidomide300mg once daily. Disease activity decreasedsignificantly in the 7 patients who completed 12weeks’ treatment, with 4 patients achieving remission.Production of tumour necrosis factor-α decreasedsignificantly from 42.3 pg/ml at baseline to 16.4 pg/mlat 12 weeks in stimulated colonic lamina propriamononuclear cells (LPMC) and from 62.8 to 22.5 pg/ml in peripheral blood monocytes. Interleukin-12production in LPMCs decreased significantly from 9.7to 5 pg/ml. Thalidomide also caused a dose-dependentreduction of these cytokines in LPMCs in vitro.Bauditz J, et al. Thalidomide reduces tumour necrosis factor alpha andinterleukin 12 production in patients with chronic active Crohn’s disease. Gut50: 196-200, Feb 2002 800896421

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Inpharma 2 Mar 2002 No. 13271173-8324/10/1327-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved