AUTHOR=Jaeger Simon U. , Schaeffeler Elke , Winter Stefan , Tremmel Roman , Schölmerich Jürgen , Malek Nisar , Stange Eduard F. , Schwab Matthias , Wehkamp Jan 

TITLE=Influence of NOD2 Variants on Trichuris suis ova Treatment Outcome in Crohn’s Disease

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2018.00764

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2018.00764

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=<p>A recent randomized study of whipworm <italic>Trichuris suis</italic> ova (TSO) in ileal Crohn’s disease failed to demonstrate a clinical benefit compared to placebo after 12 weeks. Nonetheless, it has recently been shown that the spontaneous small intestinal inflammatory changes in <italic>Nod2<sup>-/-</sup></italic> (Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2) mice could be substantially ameliorated when these mice were colonized by <italic>Trichuris muris.</italic> Those and complementary epidemiologic findings in humans lead to the hypothesis that helminths may be advantageous only in patients carrying defective <italic>NOD2</italic> variants. Thus, 207 participants of the TSO trial were retrospectively genotyped for six functional <italic>NOD2</italic> genetic variants to evaluate whether the treatment outcome differed in patients carrying <italic>NOD2</italic> variants. We observed no significant association of the <italic>NOD2</italic> variants or their haplotypes with clinical outcome after TSO treatment.</p>