Abstract
Azathioprine is an efficient maintenance treatment of IBD, able to maintain a complete clinical and anatomical remission in about one third of patients. However there are concerns regarding its long term tolerance, particularly myelosuppression and malignancy. Azathioprine is not required in about one third of Crohn's Disease patients and more than half of Ulcerative Colitis patients who will experience a mild disease course. In patients with more severe disease, although anti-TNF agents are more powerful and act more rapidly, there is a subset of patients with moderate-to-severe IBD without important anatomical damage who may achieve a prolonged steroid-free clinical and anatomical remission on azathioprine monotherapy. It is thus advised to initiate azathioprine monotherapy in these intermediate cases, and to continue azathioprine if anatomical remission is achieved.
Keywords: Anti-TNF agents, azathioprine, Crohn's disease, mercaptopurine, ulcerative coilitis.
Current Drug Targets
Title:Is There Still a Room for Azathioprine Monotherapy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease?
Volume: 14 Issue: 12
Author(s): Anne Bourrier, Philippe Seksik and Jacques Cosnes
Affiliation:
Keywords: Anti-TNF agents, azathioprine, Crohn's disease, mercaptopurine, ulcerative coilitis.
Abstract: Azathioprine is an efficient maintenance treatment of IBD, able to maintain a complete clinical and anatomical remission in about one third of patients. However there are concerns regarding its long term tolerance, particularly myelosuppression and malignancy. Azathioprine is not required in about one third of Crohn's Disease patients and more than half of Ulcerative Colitis patients who will experience a mild disease course. In patients with more severe disease, although anti-TNF agents are more powerful and act more rapidly, there is a subset of patients with moderate-to-severe IBD without important anatomical damage who may achieve a prolonged steroid-free clinical and anatomical remission on azathioprine monotherapy. It is thus advised to initiate azathioprine monotherapy in these intermediate cases, and to continue azathioprine if anatomical remission is achieved.
Export Options
About this article
Cite this article as:
Bourrier Anne, Seksik Philippe and Cosnes Jacques, Is There Still a Room for Azathioprine Monotherapy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease?, Current Drug Targets 2013; 14 (12) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/13894501113149990172
DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/13894501113149990172 |
Print ISSN 1389-4501 |
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher |
Online ISSN 1873-5592 |
Call for Papers in Thematic Issues
New drug therapy for eye diseases
Eyesight is one of the most critical senses, accounting for over 80% of our perceptions. Our quality of life might be significantly affected by eye disease, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, dry eye, etc. Although the development of microinvasive ocular surgery reduces surgical complications and improves overall outcomes, medication therapy is ...read more
- Author Guidelines
- Graphical Abstracts
- Fabricating and Stating False Information
- Research Misconduct
- Post Publication Discussions and Corrections
- Publishing Ethics and Rectitude
- Increase Visibility of Your Article
- Archiving Policies
- Peer Review Workflow
- Order Your Article Before Print
- Promote Your Article
- Manuscript Transfer Facility
- Editorial Policies
- Allegations from Whistleblowers
Related Articles
-
New Insights into HLA-G and Inflammatory Diseases
Inflammation & Allergy - Drug Targets (Discontinued) Deep Learning Approaches Towards Skin Lesion Segmentation and Classification from Dermoscopic Images - A Review
Current Medical Imaging Anti PD-1 and PDL-1 Immunotherapy in the Treatment of Advanced Non- Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC): A Review on Toxicity Profile and its Management
Current Drug Safety Integrins: Regulators of Tissue Function and Cancer Progression
Current Pharmaceutical Design Near Infrared Receptor-Targeted Nanoprobes for Early Diagnosis of Cancers
Current Medicinal Chemistry Induction of Apoptosis by Curcumin and Its Implications for Cancer Therapy
Current Cancer Drug Targets Evidence that Bergapten, Independently of its Photoactivation, Enhances p53 Gene Expression and Induces Apoptosis in Human Breast Cancer Cells
Current Cancer Drug Targets Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 Receptor Targeted Therapeutics: Novel Compounds and Novel Treatment Strategies for Cancer Medicine
Recent Patents on Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery Combining Anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and Anti-Angiogenic Strategies in Advanced NSCLC: We Should have Known Better...
Current Pharmaceutical Design Growth Responses Following a Single Intra-Muscular hGH Plasmid Administration Compared to Daily Injections of hGH in Dwarf Mice
Current Gene Therapy Receptor Mediated Tumor Targeting: An Emerging Approach for Cancer Therapy
Current Drug Delivery Vaccine Adjuvants: Key Tools for Innovative Vaccine Design
Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry Stat3 Orchestrates Tumor Development and Progression: The Achilles Heel of Head and Neck Cancers?
Current Cancer Drug Targets Anti-Carcinogenic Effects of Carnosol-An Updated Review
Current Drug Discovery Technologies Piperine and Derivatives: Trends in Structure-Activity Relationships
Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry Immune Mechanism, Aging, Season and Diseases: Modulatory Role of Melatonin
Immunology, Endocrine & Metabolic Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Discontinued) Recent Advances in the Use of Metallic Nanoparticles with Antitumoral Action - Review
Current Medicinal Chemistry A Brief Review of the Essential Role of Nanovehicles for Improving the Therapeutic Efficacy of Pharmacological Agents Against Tumours
Current Drug Delivery Induction of Tumour Cell Senescence: A New Strategy in Anticancer Treatment
Medicinal Chemistry Reviews - Online (Discontinued) Recent Advances of Metallocenes for Medicinal Chemistry
Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry