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Microbiome research aims to uncover how diet can treat IBD
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LAS VEGAS — In this exclusive video from the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress, Gary Wu, MD, of University of Pennsylvania, discusses his presentation on the intersection between diet, the microbiome and inflammatory bowel disease, and the potential of more well-defined diets to treat the disease.
“Food is different now than it was previously, and that food additives — things that have changed in our diet over the past several decades — may be playing a role in the increasing incidence of inflammatory diseases that we associate with industrialization,” Wu said. “We have a study that is ongoing right now looking at emulsifiers that have been introduced into our diet, and how this might lead to certain biomarkers that may be associated with inflammation.”
Wu also highlighted the FARMM study, which compared a defined formula diet used to treat IBD vs. vegan and omnivore diets in terms of their effects on the gut microbiota and their metabolites.
“We think that the intersection of that data set ... with other data sets that we’ve collected in IBD will help us understand a little bit more about how diet leads to the production of metabolites that are ... going to be useful in the treatment of IBD,” he said. “We already know that these defined formula diets are effective in the treatment of IBD. We just don’t understand the mechanism, and if we could understand those mechanisms we could define better diets for patients with IBD.”
Reference:
Wu G. Engineering the Gut Environment for the Treatment of IBD (Diet and Microbiome) as Short-to-Intermediate Deliverable. Presented at: Crohn’s & Colitis Congress; Jan. 19-20, 2018; Las Vegas, NV.
Disclosures: Wu reports no relevant financial disclosures.