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CASE REPORT article

Front. Med.
Sec. Gastroenterology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1485394

Vedolizumab in Oral Crohn's Disease: The downsides of a gut-specific therapy for a multi-site disease

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 2 Centre for Oral Immunobiology and Regenerative Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 3 Centre for Oral Bioengineering, Institute of Dentistry, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 4 London Behcet’s Centre of Excellence, The Royal London Dental Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease which can affect any area of the gastrointestinal tract, including oral tissues. The complex nature of this disease poses demands interdisciplinary management, especially when both intestinal and oral manifestations are present.This report presents the case of a 28-year-old male patient with oral, ileo-caecal and peri-anal CD managed jointly between Gastroenterology and Oral Medicine. Treatment with vedolizumab, an α4β7 integrin with gut-selective anti-inflammatory activity, resulted in excellent ileo-caecal disease control, but was ineffective in controlling oral manifestations. The absence of MAdCAM-1 expression in oral tissues, necessary for vedolizumab's mechanism, meant that the drug's anti-inflammatory effects were limited to the gut. This limitation led to worsening oral symptoms, necessitating concomitant azathioprine therapy to manage oral inflammation.Multidisciplinary collaboration is important when managing CD patients with both oral and gut involvement in CD. Clinicians should be aware that vedoluzimab may be beneficial for intestinal CD, but does not target inflammation in oral tissues due to its gut-specific action. Good knowledge of the pharmacology and mechanism of action of drugs prescribed can aid decision making when prescribing for this group of patients and can limit the need for polypharmacy, often associated with an increased adverse effect profile.

    Keywords: crohn, Oral Medicine, Vedolizumab, Orofacial granulomatosis, gut selectivity

    Received: 23 Aug 2024; Accepted: 12 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Harte, Macken, Zou and Fortune. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Molly Harte, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, E1 1BB, England, United Kingdom
    Farida Fortune, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, E1 1BB, England, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.