Treating Crohn`s Disease with the Monoclonal Antibody Vedolizumab

Introduction:  Crohn`s disease is an autoimmune gut disorder that causes chronic inflammation of any part of the gut, usually the end of the ileum or the colon. The symptoms can be mild to severe, but the most common ones are abdominal pain and diarrhea, tiredness, weight loss and joint pain. An abnormal immune reaction to some intestinal bacteria is known to be one of the reasons for the disease, but genetic predisposition could also be suspected. Materials and Methods:  Several medical articles, researches and publications along with some clinical trials of vedolizumab were observed and summarized in this review. Results:  The treatment of Crohn`s disease depends on its severity. There are medical, surgical, both medical and surgical, or dietary method treatments. A drug, called vedolizumab was approved recently. It is a gut-specific monoclonal antibody. It blocks the movement of T and B immune cells into the gastrointestinal tract, which suppresses the inflammation and does not affect the rest of the immune system. An investigation was conducted from 2008 to 2012 to test its effectiveness. Vedolizumab was given to 225 patients and 149 received placebo in cohort I, in cohort II - 521 patients received open-label vedolizumab. At week 6, 47.1% of the 225 patients, 44.3% of the 521 and 25.5% of the 149 had a clinical response; 40.9% of the 225, 36.7% of the 521 and 24.8% of the 149 had a mucosal healing; and 16.9% of the 225, 19.2% of the 521 and 5.4% of the 149 had a clinical remission. Conclusion:  Vedolizumab has many advantages over the existing treatments for adult patients. It has few side effects and it only affects the immune system in the GI tract.