A Potential 'Curative' Modality for Crohn's Disease---Modeled after Prophylaxis of Bovine Johne's Disease

Abstract

A naturally occurring, gastrointestinal disorder of ruminants (Johne's disease) is a chronic, debilitating, lethal disease. The causative agent is Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). Exposure that leads to disease occurs primarily in utero and/or during the neonatal period. Outside a dietzia probiotic treatment, there are no preventive/curative therapies. Interestingly, MAP is at the center of a controversy as to its role (cause of, perpetuate of, innocent bystander) in Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, sarcoidosis, Blau syndrome, and multiple sclerosis-diseases in which the incidence of systemic MAP is higher than that in the general population. Conventional therapeutic modalities, including biologic agents, for the majority of these diseases are, in general, directed at curtailing processes that are an intricate part of inflammation, with goals to induce and maintain remission. Most possess side effects of varying severity, lose therapeutic value, and more importantly, few are directed at prevention, attainment of long lasting remissions or cures, and essential none at reduction/elimination of MAP. This report presents a rationale for how/why Dietzia subsp. C79793-74 should be clinically evaluated for efficacy in patients with IBD. Arguments are based on previous studies that demonstrated (a) clinical similarities of Johne's disease and Crohn's disease, (b) inhibition of growth of MAP by Dietzia under specific culture conditions, (c) safe usage for extended daily treatments of adult cattle (up to 24 months), and (d) when used as a probiotic, curtailed diarrhea and cured 40% of adult cattle with early stage paratuberculosis.

Keywords: Bovine Johne’s disease; Crohn’s disease; Diabetes; Diarrhea; Dietzia probiotic; IBS; MAP; Multiple sclerosis; Mycobacterium avium; Therapy; Ulcerative colitis.

Figure 1

Photos of cow #R100 with late-stage clinical disease and after Dietzia- induced recovery.

Figure 2

Paratuberculosis parameters of cow #R100 at different doses of Dietzia.

Figure 3

Paratuberculosis parameters of two cows with early, initial stages of disease at different doses of Dietzia. Cow # 21 (panels A, C) eventually succumbed with disease, whereas cow #229 (panels B, D) was cured.

Figure 4

Changes in mean ELISA OD values and fecal MAP of paratuberculosis-free and –positive cows, treated and not treated. Initial and final ELISA OD values are in panel A and fecal values in Panel B. J-- = Johne’s disease-free (n=10); J⁺ NT = Johne’s disease positive, not treated (n=9) J⁺ T = Johne’s disease positive, treated (n=49); J+ T E^increase = Johne’s disease. positive with longitudinal increasing ELISA values (n=20); J⁺ T E^decrease = Johne’s disease positive with longitudinal decreasing ELISA values (n=22) Percentages shown for each group indicate changes relative to initial values.

Figure 5

Association of percent cures and longevity with ELISA OD values of treated and non-treated, paratuberculosis-free and paratuberculosis-positive adults. Values over each group indicate the number of animals.