Targeted Treatments for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Whereas older therapies for IBD were developed before their precise molecular targets were known, current drugdevelopment strategies aim to identify potential drug targets first and design ways to alter their activitypharmacologically. Monoclonal antibodies that have been humanized using advanced biotechnology offer the potential to inhibit selectivelya multitude of cell surface and extracellular targets in IBD. Cytokines and their receptors represent one important class of selective targets with high potential value in IBD. Targeting cell surface-expressed proteins on immune cells such as lymphocytes and monocytes can lead to apoptosisof those cells, with profound inhibition of immune responses in IBD. Drugs that target leukocyte extravasation constitute an important emerging category of promising agents for IBD.