Precision Medicine in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are traditionally defined as the two main subtypes of inflammatory bowel disease. However, a more recent view considers IBD as a spectrum of heterogeneous phenotypes with consistent differences in clinical presentation and behaviors, likely explained by differences in underlying pathogenetic mechanisms. The etiology is still elusive, and the suggested pathogenesis is a complex interplay among genetic predisposition and abnormal immune response at the mucosal intestinal level, activated by only partially identified environmental triggers leading to altered intestinal permeability and impaired handling of gut microbiota. The undeniable continuous progress of medical therapy with more frequent shifts from traditional to more advanced modalities also underlines the actual unmet needs. We are using medications with completely different mechanisms of action, with a lack of predictive factors of outcomes and response and still an unsatisfactory rate of success. In addition, we are missing still valuable and accurate markers to predict disease progression and severity in order to avoid under- or over-treatment. In such a complex scenario, it is undoubtful that the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms may improve the management and pave the way for precision and eventually personalized medicine in these patients; however, there are still several challenges that will be the focus of this review.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease (CD); artificial intelligence (AI); inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); precision medicine (PM); ulcerative colitis (UC).

Figure 1

An example of the potential of the evaluation by system biology of multi-omics in IBD aiming to achieve with more “precision” a tailored therapy and better outcomes.

Figure 2

A graphic scheme of the multi-step process of analysis starting from patient’s biosamples; the combination of clinical data and multi-omics results in artificial neural networks will progressively elaborate the large complexity and number of data to deliver hopefully more individualized and precise output.