Fecal DPP-4 serves as a biomarker for ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease
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Fecal dipeptidyl peptidase-4 may be used as a noninvasive biomarker in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, according to research published in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology.
“Although the diagnosis of IBD is still a challenge, over the past few years, several studies managed to identify key molecules involved in IBD pathogenesis. In this context, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) emerged as a potential noninvasive biomarker of IBD activity and as a monitoring tool of the response to biological treatments,” Pedro Pinto-Lopes, MD, MSc, Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João, in Portugal, and colleagues wrote. “Considering the demonstrated data about the dierent expression proles of DPP-4 in patients with IBD, the study of the correlation of fecal DPP-4 (fDPP-4) with IBD can contribute to further explain the role of this protein in this disease.”
In a prospective study, researchers evaluated 50 patients with Crohn’s disease (46% in clinical remission), 51 patients with ulcerative colitis (57% in clinical remission) and 40 healthy control patients to clarify the role of fDPP-4 as a biomarker of IBD activity. According to study results, fDPP-4 levels were lower in patients with UC with clinical activity compared with patients in clinical remission (1,213 ng/mL vs. 7,814 ng/mL; P < .001) and healthy control patients (1,213 ng/mL vs. 2,842 ng/mL; P = .019); patients with UC exhibiting endoscopic activity also had lower fDPP-4 levels compared with patients in remission (939 ng/mL vs. 7,544 ng/mL; P = .006).
Conversely, fDPP-4 levels were higher among patients with ileal CD compared with patients in remission (7,584 ng/mL vs. 2,104 ng/mL; P = .015). Researchers noted fDPP-4 discriminated clinical activity from remission with areas under the curve of 0.8 (95% CI, 0.68-0.93) and 0.76 (95% CI, 0.58-0.94) in patients with UC and CD, respectively.
“Our results suggest that fDPP-4 can be used as a noninvasive biomarker of IBD activity, particularly in patients with UC,” Pinto-Lopes and colleagues concluded. “We believe that the expression proles of DPP-4 are unlikely to represent simple up/down regulations induced by inammation. In fact, the DPP-4 variations herein evidenced are governed by more complex mechanisms, suggesting the existence of a functional compartmentalization of DPP-4 expression.”
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