Methotrexate no aid to infliximab

Medpage Today reports the preliminary results of a study which indicated that the common combination of infliximab plus methotrexate is no more effective than infliximab alone. The drugs have very different methods of operation, and are both effective in controlling the symptoms of Crohn's Disease in some people. Until now, it has been commonly believed that the effectiveness of infliximab is improved by concurrent use of methotrexate. However, this report states:

Patients receiving the combination had the same treatment success rate as others treated with infliximab alone in a 50-week, placebo-controlled trial, reported Brian Feagan, M.D., of the Robarts Research Institute in London, Ontario, at Digestive Disease Week.

If further research backs up this finding then there'll be a lot of happy patients who'll be able to reduce the number of injections they need to take. In addition, fewer medications should lead to fewer side-effects.

Low levels of JAM-A protein associated with Crohn's

UPI have a very brief article that includes researchers definitively stating that Crohn's disease is "linked to low levels of a protein that helps bind the stomach lining". They go on:

The scientists say that the stomach lining helps keep out bacteria that cause Crohn's, an inflammation that can involve any part of the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus. They found that patients with Crohn's and similar diseases have low levels of a protein known as JAM-A in their stomach linings.

This is the limit of technical details in the article. The full research should appear shortly in the journal Gastroenterology.