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World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2020; 26(7): 696-705
Published online Feb 21, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i7.696
Proteomic insights on the metabolism in inflammatory bowel disease
Laura Francesca Pisani, Manuela Moriggi, Cecilia Gelfi, Maurizio Vecchi, Luca Pastorelli
Laura Francesca Pisani, Manuela Moriggi, Luca Pastorelli, Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy Unit, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese 20097, Italy
Cecilia Gelfi, Department of Biomedical Science for Health, University of the Study of Milan, IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milan 20122, Italy
Maurizio Vecchi, Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Unit, IRCCS Ca' Granda Foundation, Policlinico Hospital, University of the Study of Milan, Milan 20122, Italy
Luca Pastorelli, Department of Biomedical Science for Health, University of the Study of Milan, Milan 20122, Italy
Author contributions: Pisani LF performed the majority of the writing; Moriggi M prepared the figure and wrote the technical proteomic paragraphs; Vecchi M provided the input in writing the review; Gelfi C revised the review and gave her support as proteomics expert; and Pastorelli L revised the review and gave his support as clinical expert.
Supported by Italy’s Ministero Italiano della Salute (Italian Ministry of Health Grant), No. GR-2016-02364736.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Luca Pastorelli, DPhil, MD, Assistant Professor, Doctor, Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy Unit, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, Piazza Malan, San Donato Milanese 20097, Italy. luca.pastorelli@unimi.it
Received: November 25, 2019
Peer-review started: November 25, 2019
First decision: December 23, 2019
Revised: January 2, 2020
Accepted: February 10, 2020
Article in press: February 10, 2020
Published online: February 21, 2020
Processing time: 87 Days and 7.2 Hours
Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic and relapsing inflammatory conditions of the gut that include Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The pathogenesis of IBD is not completely unraveled, IBD are multi-factorial diseases with reported alterations in the gut microbiota, activation of different immune cell types, changes in the vascular endothelium, and alterations in the tight junctions’ structure of the colonic epithelial cells. Proteomics represents a useful tool to enhance our biological understanding and to discover biomarkers in blood and intestinal specimens. It is expected to provide reproducible and quantitative data that can support clinical assessments and help clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of IBD. Sometimes a differential diagnosis of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and the prediction of treatment response can be deducted by finding meaningful biomarkers. Although some non-invasive biomarkers have been described, none can be considered as the “gold standard” for IBD diagnosis, disease activity and therapy outcome. For these reason new studies have proposed an “IBD signature”, which consists in a panel of biomarkers used to assess IBD. The above described approach characterizes “omics” and in this review we will focus on proteomics.

Keywords: Proteomics; Inflammatory bowel disease; Cronh’s disease; Ulcerative colitis; Proteins; Biomarkers discovery

Core tip: Patients' heterogeneity is a hallmark for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Some patients present limited bowel involvement and a mild course of the disease, others develop very extensive, aggressive disease and variable response to therapy. In IBD, there is a great need of patient stratification and of new biomarkers as part of a personalized medicine approach to patient care. Biological therapies are more and more widely used for IBD patients, because of their efficacy in patient’s refractory to other drugs; still, biological treatments fail in 20%-40% of patients and, to date, no reliable clinical or molecular predictor of response to biological therapeutic strategy has been described. This review aims to collect the "omics" approach for research of serological biomarkers of diagnosis, response to specific biological therapies in the IBD field.