A review of standard and novel therapies in Crohn's disease

Crohn's disease (CD) is one of the inflammatory bowel diseases characterise d by transmural inflammation of various segments of the gut. The pathogenes is of the disease remains obscure and medical and surgical therapy is limit ed. This review highlights the basic clinical features of the disease as we ll as some recent insights into the aetiology of the disease. Standard medi cal therapy is discussed and more recent biologic therapies including the u se of anti-TNF-alpha antibodies are described. The changing focus of therap y, from non-specific anti-inflammatory medications to targeted biologic the rapies, is reviewed. A number of novel therapeutic targets and patented the rapies are reviewed and future directions for research and clinical testing are discussed.