Otte ML, Lama Tamang R, Papapanagiotou J, Ahmad R, Dhawan P, Singh AB. Mucosal healing and inflammatory bowel disease: Therapeutic implications and new targets. World J Gastroenterol 2023; 29(7): 1157-1172 [PMID: 36926666 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i7.1157]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Amar B Singh, PhD, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 600 42nd Dewey, Omaha, NE 68118, United States. amar.singh@unmc.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2023; 29(7): 1157-1172 Published online Feb 21, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i7.1157
Mucosal healing and inflammatory bowel disease: Therapeutic implications and new targets
Megan Lynn Otte, Raju Lama Tamang, Julia Papapanagiotou, Rizwan Ahmad, Punita Dhawan, Amar B Singh
Megan Lynn Otte, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, United States
Raju Lama Tamang, Julia Papapanagiotou, Rizwan Ahmad, Punita Dhawan, Amar B Singh, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, United States
Author contributions: Otte ML, Lama Tamang R, Papapanagiotou J, and Ahmad R reviewed literature for the latest advances in the field; Otte ML, Lama Tamang R, Papapanagiotou J, Ahmad R, Dhawan P, and Singh AB wrote and revised this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Amar B Singh, PhD, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 600 42nd Dewey, Omaha, NE 68118, United States. amar.singh@unmc.edu
Received: October 21, 2022 Peer-review started: October 21, 2022 First decision: November 30, 2022 Revised: December 16, 2022 Accepted: February 14, 2023 Article in press: February 14, 2023 Published online: February 21, 2023
Abstract
Mucosal healing (MH) is vital in maintaining homeostasis within the gut and protecting against injury and infections. Multiple factors and signaling pathways contribute in a dynamic and coordinated manner to maintain intestinal homeostasis and mucosal regeneration/repair. However, when intestinal homeostasis becomes chronically disturbed and an inflammatory immune response is constitutively active due to impairment of the intestinal epithelial barrier autoimmune disease results, particularly inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Many proteins and signaling pathways become dysregulated or impaired during these pathological conditions, with the mechanisms of regulation just beginning to be understood. Consequently, there remains a relative lack of broadly effective therapeutics that can restore MH due to the complexity of both the disease and healing processes, so tissue damage in the gastrointestinal tract of patients, even those in clinical remission, persists. With increased understanding of the molecular mechanisms of IBD and MH, tissue damage from autoimmune disease may in the future be ameliorated by developing therapeutics that enhance the body’s own healing response. In this review, we introduce the concept of mucosal healing and its relevance in IBD as well as discuss the mechanisms of IBD and potential strategies for altering these processes and inducing MH.
Core Tip: Mucosal healing (MH) is vital in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and protecting against infection and injury. MH has emerged as an important clinical criterion in effective treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, there remains a relative lack of therapeutics that can restore MH due to the complexity of the disease and healing processes. Through increased understanding of the molecular mechanisms of MH, tissue damage from IBD may be ameliorated by developing novel therapeutics. Here, we introduce the concept of MH and its relevance in IBD, and discuss the mechanisms of IBD and potential strategies for altering these processes for inducing MH.
