Background/Aims Bowel urgency is an important symptom for quality of life determination in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Few clinical studies have focused on bowel urgency as an efficacy endpoint. Budesonide foam enema has shown efficacy for clinical and endoscopic improvement in mild-to-moderate UC. We evaluated the improvement of clinical symptoms (bowel urgency), safety, and treatment impact of twice-daily budesonide foam enema on the quality of life in patients with UC.
Methods This open-label, multicenter, prospective observational study comprised a 4-week observation period assessing the effectiveness and safety of twice-daily budesonide foam enema. Mild-to-moderate UC patients who had bowel urgency were included. Patients collected data daily in an electronic patient-reported outcome system or logbooks. The primary endpoint was the rate of resolution of bowel urgency at the end of the 4-week observation period. The rate of bowel incontinence was also assessed.
Results Sixty-one patients were enrolled. Of patients with a final evaluation, the rate of resolution of bowel urgency was 58.5% (31/53; 95% confidence interval, 44.1%–71.9%). Bowel urgency decreased over time, with a significant difference observed on day 7 versus day 0. Bowel incontinence showed a decreasing trend from day 5, with a significant difference confirmed on day 12 versus day 0. The clinical remission rate was 64.4% (38/59; 95% confidence interval, 50.9%–76.4%). One adverse event not related to budesonide rectal foam occurred.
Conclusions The findings suggest that bowel urgency can be improved early with twice-daily budesonide foam enema. No new safety signals were observed.
Background/Aims Leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein (LRG) is a new serum biomarker reflecting the disease activity of ulcerative colitis (UC), but its change during the acute phase has not been enough investigated.
Methods Patients with UC who initiated the induction therapy with steroid or advanced therapy (biologics or Janus kinase inhibitors) were prospectively enrolled. Associations of LRG, C-reactive protein (CRP) and fecal calprotectin (FC) at baseline, week 1, and week 8 with clinical remission at week 8 and subsequent endoscopic improvement within 1 year (Mayo endoscopic subscore of 0 or 1) were assessed.
Results A total of 143 patients with UC were included. LRG and CRP at week 1 were significantly lower in the clinical remission group than in the non-remission group (LRG, 20.6 μg/mL vs. 28.4 μg/mL, P< 0.001; CRP, 0.9 mg/dL vs. 2.3 mg/dL, P< 0.001) while FC demonstrated the difference between groups only at week 8. The area under the curves of week 1 LRG, CRP, and FC for week 8 clinical remission using the receiver operating characteristic curves analysis were 0.68, 0.71, and 0.57, respectively. Furthermore, LRG and CRP predicted subsequent endoscopic improvement as early as week 1, while FC was predictive only at week 8.
Conclusions LRG can be an early-phase biomarker predicting subsequent clinical and endoscopic response to induction therapy.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
The diagnostic accuracy of plasma and serum calprotectin is inferior to C-reactive protein in patients with suspected Crohn’s disease M. H. Rasmussen, J. B. Brodersen, C. L. Brasen, J. S. Madsen, T. Knudsen, J. Kjeldsen, M. D. Jensen Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology.2025; : 1. CrossRef
Changes of leucine-rich alpha 2 glycoprotein could be a marker of changes of endoscopic and histologic activity of ulcerative colitis Yuki Aoyama, Sakiko Hiraoka, Eriko Yasutomi, Toshihiro Inokuchi, Takehiro Tanaka, Kensuke Takei, Shoko Igawa, Keiko Takeuchi, Masahiro Takahara, Junki Toyosawa, Yasushi Yamasaki, Hideaki Kinugasa, Jun Kato, Hiroyuki Okada, Motoyuki Otsuka Scientific Reports.2025;[Epub] CrossRef
Background/Aims The pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus (TAC) is known to be largely influenced by single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CYP3A5. Patients starting TAC require careful dose adjustment, owing to the wide range of optimal dosages, depending on their CYP3A5 expression status. Here, we evaluated whether individualization of TAC dosages based on CYP3A5 SNPs would improve its therapeutic efficacy in ulcerative colitis.
Methods Twenty-one patients were prospectively treated, with their initial dosage adjusted according to their CYP3A5 status (0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 mg/kg/day for CYP3A5*3/*3, CYP3A5*1/*3, and CYP3A5*1/*1, respectively). Their clinical outcomes were compared with those of patients treated with a fixed dose (0.1 mg/kg/day).
Results The first blood trough level of CYP3A5 expressors, CYP3A5*1/*3 or CYP3A5*1/*1, and the overall rate in achieving the target blood trough level within a week in the individualized-dose group were significantly higher than those in the fixed-dose group (5.15±2.33 ng/mL vs. 9.63±0.79 ng/mL, P=0.035 and 12.5% vs. 66.7%, P=0.01). The remission rate at 2 weeks in the expressors was as high as that in the nonexpressors, CYP3A5*3/*3, in the individualized-dose group.
Conclusions Individualized TAC treatment is effective against ulcerative colitis regardless of the CYP3A5 genotype.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
The impact of cytochrome P450 3A genetic polymorphisms on tacrolimus pharmacokinetics in ulcerative colitis patients Maizumi Furuse, Shuhei Hosomi, Yu Nishida, Shigehiro Itani, Yuji Nadatani, Shusei Fukunaga, Koji Otani, Fumio Tanaka, Yasuaki Nagami, Koichi Taira, Noriko Kamata, Toshio Watanabe, Kenji Watanabe, Yasuhiro Fujiwara, Erika Cecchin PLOS ONE.2021; 16(4): e0250597. CrossRef
Advances in research of tacrolimus for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease Jing-Jing Wang, Yi-Hong Fan World Chinese Journal of Digestology.2019; 27(13): 842. CrossRef