EC Gastroenterology and Digestive System

Background and Aims: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are chronic disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, often grouped together under the term Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Symptoms of diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, and weight loss cause significant morbidity and reduced quality of life for over 1.4 million Americans. Despite the use of therapies including prednisone, immunomodulators, antibiotics, and biologics, the majority of sufferers fail to see lasting remissions and experience little impact on their eventual need for surgical interventions, revealing an urgent need for a deeper understanding of pathogenesis and development of novel, targeted therapies. Interleukin-10, a potent anti-inflammatory cytokine, has been evaluated as a potential therapeutic for IBD since shortly after its discovery. Despite its effectiveness in rodent models, its efficacy in human clinical trials proved lack luster due, in large part, to its short in vivo half-life and toxicity associated with high systemic doses.

Methods: Phase Inversion encapsulation, a non-mechanical encapsulation approach that retains full protein bioactivity, dramatically improves shelf-life and affords an extended release of protein, was utilized to encapsulate IL-10, largely overcoming the cytokine’s therapeutic shortcomings. Studies employing encapsulated IL-10 in rodent models of IBD were used to demonstrate a novel therapeutic application of this sustained-release technology aimed at IBD.

Results: We show that oral treatment with encapsulated IL-10 ameliorated weight loss and improved endoscopy scores in the murine model of DSS induced colitis.

Conclusion: These observations support a potential role for Phase Inversion encapsulated IL-10 in the prevention and resolution of colitis flares.

 Keywords: Crohn’s Disease; Ulcerative Colitis; IBD; IL-10

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