PREDIMID
PREDIMID - Development of diagnosis and prognosis tests for Inflammatory bowel disease patient follow-up, especially for Crohn disease: Identification of biomarkers and their validation by SRM (Selected Reaction Monitoring)
The PREDIMID project concerns the identification of biomarkers by proteomics in the context of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Crohn disease (CD) and Ulcerative colitis (UC) are both IBD and these patients show lesions within the digestive tract that can severely impact quality of life. The incidences of CD and UC are respectively 10/100000 and 6/100000 per year; whereas IBD prevalence is 0.3% in EU. Life expectancy of IBD patients is close to the one of the general population. A first unmet clinical need for IBD patients concerns lesion diagnosis and stratification of patients according to location and type of lesions. A second issue is the prediction of relapse when the patients are in remission induced by a treatment with biologics (particularly anti-TNF Antibody). Only colonoscopy (invasive, not comfortable and costly) is used as a gold standard to evaluate the presence and severity of lesions or to control for mucosal healing. It has been shown that deep mucosal healing was associated to a lower relapse risk in CD. Beside endoscopy the best marker of relapse in faecal calprotectin which is also a surrogate marker for mucosal healing.
In this context, PREDIMID is a research project involving prospective IBD patients’ enrolment and collection of samples. Proteomic analyses are planned to identify and confirm some potential biomarkers highlighted at the tissue level and at the systemic level (in blood).
Currently, we collect different types of samples: blood-derived products, stools and tissue biopsies, thanks to the clinical activity of Professor Edouard LOUIS (head of PREDIMID) and his colleagues at the University Hospital of Liège, CHU Liège.
We have identified two sets of candidate biomarkers linked to the relapse risk and associated to the patient lesion status by studying CD ulcer, the most frequent CD lesion. The refinement of the two sets of candidate markers and a specific method of quantification are under progress to confirm these biomarkers in blood. Our data should be consolidated thank to the analysis of a second cohort of samples that will be originated from the SPARE clinical trial initiated through the European consortium named BIOCYCLE, project H2020 (https://biocycle-project.eu/).
This validation of markers is mandatory for any commercial development that could be transposed and used in clinics as a companion diagnosis/ prognosis test. Such test could be proposed as an alternative to colonoscopy for IBD patients, if showing the same statistical power and at lower cost. Such laboratory test would have an important impact on the comfort and safety of clinical IBD patient management, on health care related costs and for a company that would develop such a companion test.
Contact Marie-Alice Meuwis
