Four out of five patients who participated in a study, led by researchers from the University of Birmingham, were cured after taking a commonly used antibiotic that treats diarrhea.
Vancomycin, which is usually prescribed to treat diarrhea, could be an effective drug for a type of inflammatory bowel disease, the new study has found.
According to the official statement by the University, participants were treated with the oral antibiotic for four weeks and followed up for a further four weeks during which the medication was discontinued. After four weeks of treatment, 80% of patients achieved clinical remission with a significant decrease in inflammatory markers, and 100% showed mucosal healing.
“We are now preparing applications for a randomised controlled trial to determine the therapeutic effects of vancomycin. This next phase of research is crucial to understanding the full potential of vancomycin in PSC-IBD treatment,” Dr Palak Trivedi, Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist at the University of Birmingham’s Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy and senior author of the paper.
“Our findings suggest that vancomycin could offer a new therapeutic option for patients with this challenging combination of IBD and autoimmune liver disease. While these results are preliminary, they provide a strong foundation for further research,” Dr Mohammed Nabil Quraishi, University of Birmingham, corresponding author of the study said.
Vancomycin was found to be effective in treating people who have a specific type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which develops in the context of an incurable autoimmune liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). IBD and PSC are closely correlated, with most individuals who have PSC developing IBD, and up to 14% of patients with IBD also developing PSC. This increases the chances of needing colon surgery and getting colon or liver cancer, needing a liver transplant, and the overall risks of death.