Team:ShanghaiTechChina B/Project/Intestinal Disease
Intestinal Diseases
The intestines, which are responsible for digestion and absorption, are a crucial part of the gastrointestinal tract in the human body. There are many diseases affecting our gastrointestinal system, which jeopardize our health.
Inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are an inflammatory condition affecting the bowel linings. Crohn's disease affects about 3.2 per 1,000 people in Europe and North America. Unfortunately, mechanisms of IBD remain a riddle, and scientists spare no effort to seek effective therapies.
We conducted a survey regarding inflammatory bowel disease awareness and found out that a lot of us are suffering from these diseases. People in China are still not paying enough attention to intestinal diseases. Our team iGEM2016 ShanghaiTechChina_B is striving to change this situation. We chose IBD as an entry point and designed a complete set of therapeutic methods to treat it by utilizing our engineered E.coli. Actually we are hoping to build a platform that may also be applied to other intestinal diseases in the future.
We hope that our work can help more patients who are suffering from intestinal diseases, and raise the attention of public. This is the fundamental principle of our human practice.
There are currently four methods to treat IBD: surgery, chemical drugs, immunosuppression, fecal microbiota transplant. It is unfortunate that all of these treatments have limited effects on IBD.
Surgery
Ulcerative colitis can in most cases be cured by proctocolectomy, although this may not eliminate extra-intestinal symptoms.
Surgery cannot cure Crohn's disease but may be needed to treat complications such as abscesses, strictures or fistulae. Crohn's disease can recur in the healthy parts of the intestine, usually at the resection site.
Chemical Drugs
Chemical drugs for IBD are tailored for each patient. So doctors must consider various factors to determine drugs and doses.
Immunosuppression
Generally, depending on the level of severity, IBD may require immunosuppression to control the symptoms. The side effect is that the body becomes more vulnerable to infections and malignancy.
Fecal microbiota transplant
FMT is the process of transplantation of fecal bacteria from a healthy individual into a recipient. It is a relatively new treatment option for IBD which has attracted many attention since 2010 and many related standards has not been completely established yet. This therapy needs strict tests for donors, and the curative effect is not significant enough so far.
Reference:
[1] Karimuddin, Ahmer; Gilles, Gary. "Surgery for Abdominal/Intestinal Crohn's Disease". Trusted Therapies. Trusted Therapies. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
[2] Mowat C, Cole A, Windsor A, Ahmad T, Arnott I, Driscoll R, Mitton S, Orchard T, Rutter M, Younge L, Lees C, Ho GT, Satsangi J, Bloom S (2011). "Guidelines for the management of inflammatory bowel disease in adults". Gut. 60 (5): 571–607. doi:10.1136/gut.2010.224154. PMID 21464096.
[3] Colman RJ, Rubin DT (2014). "Fecal microbiota transplantation as therapy for inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis". J Crohns Colitis. 8 (12): 1569–81. doi:10.1016/j.crohns.2014.08.006. PMC 4296742free to read. PMID 25223604.
