Usefulness of monitoring antitumor necrosis factor serum levels during the induction phase in patients with Crohn's disease.

Aims: The aims of this study were (a) to know the kinetics of antitumor necrosis factor (TNF) drug serum levels during the induction phase in patients with Crohn's disease; (b) to identify variables associated with these levels; and (c) to assess the relation between these levels and short-term effectiveness in Crohn's disease patients.

Methods: Patients with Crohn's disease naïve to anti-TNF treatment were prospectively included. Remission was defined as a Crohn's disease activity index (CDAI) score <150 after 14 weeks of treatment.

Insulin receptor substrate-4 is overexpressed in colorectal cancer and promotes retinoblastoma-cyclin-dependent kinase activation.

Background: Insulin receptor substrate 4 (IRS-4) is an adaptor protein for which new evidence suggests plays a role in tumour promotion.

Methods: We described nuclear IRS-4 in RKO colon cancer cell lines in biopsies of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) (n = 20) and in matched adjacent normal colorectal (MANC) tissue (n = 20).

Results: Treatment with physiological doses of IGF-1 promoted nuclear influx of IRS-4 from cellular cytosol in RKO cells.

Choice of azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine dose based on thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) activity to avoid myelosuppression. A prospective study.

Background/aims: To prospectively evaluate whether, in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, the choice of azathioprine (AZA) or 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) dose based on thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) activity prevents myelotoxicity.

Methodology: TPMT activity in red blood cells was measured in 99 patients with Crohn's disease and 32 with ulcerative colitis prior to initiating AZA/6-MP treatment. AZA/6-MP dose was chosen based on TPMT activity, which was again determined one month after starting therapy.

[Thiopurine methyltransferase activity in patients with autoimmune hepatitis].

Background And Objective: The measurement of the activity of thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) is useful to monitor, on an individual basis, the dose of azathioprine in order to identify patients at risk of myelotoxicity. However, the distribution of the enzymatic activity in patients with autoimmune hepatitis is unknown. Our objective was to analyze the activity of TPMT in a group of 200 patients with autoimmune hepatitis and to evaluate the possible effect of some variables such as the treatment with azathioprine on this activity.

[Thiopurine methyltransferase activity and myelosuppression in inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine].

Background And Objective: We aimed at assessing whether there exists a relationship between thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) activity and the incidence of adverse events, especially myelotoxicity, in patients with inflammatory bowel disease treated with azathioprine (AZA) or 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP).

Patients And Method: By means of a radiochemical method, we determined the TPMT activity in erythrocytes of patients with inflammatory bowel disease who had received previously or at the time of the study AZA or 6-MP (n = 97). A group of 37 patients who had never been treated with these drugs was included.