Antibiotics for the Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis

Summary

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an acute and chronic inflammatory bowel disease, whose cause is unknown. However, it is widely accepted that bacteria living in the large bowel are essential for the development of the disease. Intuitively, therefore, a logical approach to treatment would be to use antibiotics. However, antimicrobial chemotherapy has been unsuccessful in managing acute colitis, and has had only limited benefit in long-term treatment. The failure of antibiotics in UC arises from the fact that no-one has tried to identify which bacteria are involved in causing disease, and equally importantly, nobody has targeted appropriate antibiotics to knock out the specific bacteria in question, in a systematic way. Despite this, increasing evidence implicates bacteria living on the lining of the bowel being involved in UC. Our aim, therefore is to identify bacteria colonizing the mucosal surface in the lower large intestine and to determine the antibiotic sensitivities of those the investigators believe to be particularly involved in the disease, such as enterococcit, peptostreptococci and enterobacteria. Because the investigators have already studied resistance to antimicrobial in many mucosal isolate, the investigators plan ot focus on using a combination of two antibiotics in this work. A controlled trial will test the benefit of using these antibiotics over a period of one month and then the patients will be followed up over a six month period. The investigators will be looking for significant long-term improvements, and a reduction in drug use following antibiotic therapy.

Timeline

Start

2006-07

Primary completion

2008-12

Completion

2008-12

Publications

• Background Montgomery SM, Morris DL, Thompson NP, Subhani J, Pounder RE, Wakefield AJ. Prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease in British 26 year olds: national longitudinal birth cohort. BMJ. 1998 Apr 4;316(7137):1058-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.316.7137.1058. No abstract available.
• Background Mayberry JF, Ballantyne KC, Hardcastle JD, Mangham C, Pye G. Epidemiological study of asymptomatic inflammatory bowel disease: the identification of cases during a screening programme for colorectal cancer. Gut. 1989 Apr;30(4):481-3. doi: 10.1136/gut.30.4.481.
• Background Loftus EV Jr, Silverstein MD, Sandborn WJ, Tremaine WJ, Harmsen WS, Zinsmeister AR. Ulcerative colitis in Olmsted County, Minnesota, 1940-1993: incidence, prevalence, and survival. Gut. 2000 Mar;46(3):336-43. doi: 10.1136/gut.46.3.336.
• Background Cummings JH, Macfarlane GT, Macfarlane S. Intestinal bacteria and ulcerative colitis. Curr Issues Intest Microbiol. 2003 Mar;4(1):9-20.
• Background Onderdonk AB, Bartlett JG. Bacteriological studies of experimental ulcerative colitis. Am J Clin Nutr. 1979 Jan;32(1):258-65. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/32.1.258. No abstract available.
• Background Macfarlane S, Furrie E, Cummings JH, Macfarlane GT. Chemotaxonomic analysis of bacterial populations colonizing the rectal mucosa in patients with ulcerative colitis. Clin Infect Dis. 2004 Jun 15;38(12):1690-9. doi: 10.1086/420823. Epub 2004 May 25.
• Background Furrie E, Macfarlane S, Kennedy A, Cummings JH, Walsh SV, O'neil DA, Macfarlane GT. Synbiotic therapy (Bifidobacterium longum/Synergy 1) initiates resolution of inflammation in patients with active ulcerative colitis: a randomised controlled pilot trial. Gut. 2005 Feb;54(2):242-9. doi: 10.1136/gut.2004.044834.

Drugs

Indications