(ANSA) – ROME, OCTOBER 05 – A drug recently approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, ozanimod, has also proved effective in the treatment of ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the last section of the intestine and is currently long-term effective treatment is not yet available. The confirmation comes from an international clinical study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also coordinated by Silvio Danese, new director of the Gastroenterology Unit of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan.
The study was conducted over five years in over 285 centers and 30 countries around the world, on more than 1,000 patients aged 18 to 75 with moderate or severe ulcerative colitis. “Ozanimod is an immuno-modulating drug, capable of blocking lymphocytes, cells that play a key role in inflammatory diseases within the lymph nodes. In fact, it prevents it from reaching the organs where they trigger inflammation and damage tissues,” he explains. Danish. “The drug was not only well tolerated and effective, but was able to control the disease in patients for whom other therapies had failed.” By acting on the body’s immune response, ozanimod could increase the risk of developing opportunistic infections (i.e. caused by bacteria or viruses in organisms with a compromised immune system), but the safety profile of the drug is very solid, thanks to the large number of patients treated, not only in clinical trials for multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis, but also for Crohn’s disease (study still being completed). “Thanks to research in the immunological field, today we have new classes of drugs available, capable of interfering with inflammatory and autoimmune processes in an increasingly targeted and effective way – comments Danese – These are therapies that could change our ability to intervene for chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, still highly disabling today “. (HANDLE).
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