“We looked at national and international data, and we found a disease signature that was robust across all the datasets irrespective of whether the patient was experiencing a flare in disease,” Khatri said.įrom there, it was matter of identifying how certain drugs affected the gene activity associated with ulcerative colitis. Specifically, Khatri and his team were looking for certain genomic “signatures,” or patterns of gene activity, that seemed to persist in most patients with the condition. Khatri and his team began their research by analyzing publicly available genomic data from hundreds of patients with ulcerative colitis who had undergone a colon biopsy, a somewhat common practice that helps doctors diagnose the disease and its severity. Analyzing genes and drugs’ effects on them Graduate students Lawrence Bai and Madeleine Scott are co-lead authors. 16 in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. As it turned out, atorvastatin, sold under the brand name Lipitor, was one of the top performers, significantly decreasing the rate of surgical treatment for ulcerative colitis, the need for anti-inflammatory medication and hospitalization rates.Ī paper describing the study was published Sept. The condition, while not life threatening, can be severely debilitating, especially if anti-inflammatory medications don’t work.īy tapping into publicly available datasets of anonymized patient health information, including genomic and prescription data, Khatri and his team tracked down a connection between a handful of drugs and decreased symptoms of ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative colitis causes inflammation and ulcers in the bowel, leaving patients vulnerable to an array of unpleasant symptoms, including abdominal pain, blood in the stool, constipation and fatigue. “So we thought, ‘Can we use available data to see whether drugs that are already approved by the FDA can be repurposed to better treat these patients?’” It’s a drastic measure you’re removing part of your body,” said Khatri. “About 30% of ulcerative colitis patients eventually have to undergo a colectomy as a last resort. Discovering another option is significant, said Purvesh Khatri, PhD, associate professor of medicine and of biomedical data science, who led the research. There may be good news for the nearly 1 million people battling ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel condition with no real cure: Statins, a commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug, seem to be an effective, if unexpected, treatment for the condition, according to a new Stanford Medicine study.Ĭurrently, the only lines of defense against ulcerative colitis are anti-inflammatory drugs, which don’t always work, and a colectomy, the surgical removal of part or all of the colon.
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