Inhibition of T-bet-mediated transcriptional elongation as a novel therapeutic target for inflammatory bowel disease.

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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a condition that can lead to distressing symptoms including bloody diarrhoea, abdominal pain and weight loss. Complications of IBD include cancer, intestinal failure and bowel perforation requiring emergency surgery. Even with the most effective of treatments, a large proportion of patient's fail to respond and continue to suffer with debilitating symptoms. We are interested in discovering more targeted therapies that may ultimately benefit these patients.We believe that IBD is caused by over-activity of the immune system, particularly in the gut. A protein called T-bet plays a fundamental role in maintaining a healthy and regulated immune system. Research has shown that some patients with IBD have abnormal T-bet activity and that this may lead to immune over-activity and ultimately IBD.We would like to test the effects of blocking the activity of T-bet with new experimental treatments to see if this can treat IBD. We will initially treat mice with IBD to ensure the treatment is safe and effective before studying the effects on colonic specimens from patients with IBD. We hope to discover a new and effective treatment that can be developed, tested and benefit patients in the future.