Extract Of Biopsy Cells Relieves Crohn's Disease

A preparation of proteins extracted from a person's own colon cells and administered orally leads to disease remission in many patients with Crohn's disease, according to a presentation at the Digestive Disease Week conference, held in Chicago. To produce the preparation, called Alequel, "we take material from biopsy of the mucosal layer of the large bowel," Dr. Dean Engelhardt of Enzo Biochem, Inc. in New York City, told Reuters Health. "We solubilize it and prepare it with a specific buffer that we're holding as proprietary and then mail it back to the physician." The patient then takes the preparation orally three times per week, he added. Researchers at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem conducted a clinical trial in which 31 patients with moderate to severe Crohn's disease were randomly assigned to take oral Alequel or a sham "placebo" preparation. According to the meeting report, 58 percent of those in the Alequel group achieved clinical remission compared with 29 percent of those on placebo.