Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2018; 24(25): 2764-2775
Published online Jul 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i25.2764
Systematic review and meta-analysis on the association of tuberculosis in Crohn’s disease patients treated with tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitors (Anti-TNFα)
Brent L Cao, Ahmad Qasem, Robert C Sharp, Latifa S Abdelli, Saleh A Naser
Brent L Cao, Ahmad Qasem, Robert C Sharp, Latifa S Abdelli, Saleh A Naser, Division of Molecular Microbiology, Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, United States
Author contributions: Cao BL and Qasem A are Co-first authors; Cao BL designed the study, acquired the data, analyzed and interpreted the data, and participating in writing the manuscript; Qasem A, Sharp RC, and Abdelli LS interpreted the data and participated in revisions of the manuscript; Naser SA is the group leader who supervised all aspects of the data collection/analyses and manuscript writing.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: 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/
Correspondence to: Saleh A Naser, PhD, Professor, Associate Director, Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, Division of Molecular Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, 4110 Libra Drive, Orlando, FL 32816, United States. saleh.naser@ucf.edu
Telephone: +1-407-8230955 Fax: +1-407-8230955
Received: April 12, 2018
Peer-review started: April 13, 2018
First decision: April 27, 2018
Revised: April 30, 2018
Accepted: June 2, 2018
Article in press: June 2, 2018
Published online: July 7, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: The increased risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) and other Mycobacterium species when on tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) inhibitor treatments has been a problem in patients with autoimmune disorders, such as Crohn’s disease (CD). This meta-analysis examines in detail the clinical trials that involve CD patients on TNFα inhibitors and their risk of developing TB infections. Our data concludes that, out of twenty-three studies examined, TNFα inhibitors are indeed associated with an increased risk of TB infection in CD patients. Knowledge of this data could help re-analyze what medications autoimmune patients should be prescribed to and evaluate possible linkages to Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis infection. Thus, this information should be used to further inform clinical decision making and research.