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Abstract

Diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) requires complex and invasive investigations and places a heavy burden, both on healthcare resources, because of the cost, and on the individual, in times of disease-related disability and poor quality of life. Recently, there has been increasing interest in non-invasive biomarkers to diagnose and monitor the disease activity. Since the introduction of biological therapies, an increasing number of studies have focused on the utilization of non-invasive biomarkers of inflammation. Among the more extensively investigated are standard serum markers such CRP, and faecal biomarkers, such as faecal calprotectin (FC) and lactoferrin (FL). In general, although there are some limitations as these markers are also raised in systemic infection / inflammation, colorectal cancer, NSAID-induced bowel inflammation and polyps. The development of sophisticated analytical techniques has enabled the study and interpretation of changes in the faecal volatile organic metabolites (VOMs) and its correlation with the pathophysiological mechanisms in the gut. VOMs are the chemicals that are the products and intermediates of metabolism and may be altered in different bowel diseases. Changes in faecal VOMs should reflect GI disorders and could potentially provide diagnostic information about these conditions. Multiple studies reported the differences in VOM profiles of healthy controls vs. patients with active and inactive IBD. VOM profiles have been used to segregate patients by disease activity and, in the case of colitis, the type of disease. The correlation of VOMs with microbiota is interesting and supports the hypothesis of gut microbial dysbiosis in the etiology of IBD. This provides an important platform to explore the role of dysbiosis in IBD pathogenesis and development of novel therapeutic targets. In future, further understanding of faecal VOMs may lead to the development of a rapid and simple point of care diagnosis and monitoring of IBD.

Biography

Email: Iftikhar.Ahmed@uhs.nhs.uk