Optimizing biological treatments of patients with inflammatory bowel disease by therapeutic drug monitoring

Orion Diagnostica distributes many tests produced by other high-quality manufacturers, the Promonitor test portfolio being one of them. Promonitor tests are standard ELISA tests used at therapeutic drug monitoring of biological treatments. Although biologics are known to be highly effective treatments, they sometimes fail. Loss of response to a biologic treatment is associated with several setbacks for the patient, such as disease flares and hospitalization.

A study from summer 2019 highlights the importance of proactive therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The study was performed on patients, who had been on a biological treatment called infliximab (IFX) for their IBD during years 2013-2017. This study aimed at further identifying the factors that contribute to the pharmacokinetic variability and IFX trough concentrations and clearance. These in turn contribute to the patients’ loss of response reaction to IFX treatment. IFX trough concentrations, which are the lowest concentrations reached by the drug before the next dose is administered, were measured from serum with Promonitor ELISA kit. The results of the study showed an overall high pharmacokinetic variability with significant associations between for example IFX antibodies, body weight, gender, and the IFX trough concentration measurements as well as clearance. These results support the need to perform proactive TDM to achieve early dose optimization of IFX in IBD patients.

Read more about the study here: https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00007691-900000000-98849