A research team from the University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka has been selected for a prestigious grant to investigate the viability of a biomarker to accurately diagnose a disease that is rising very rapidly around the world: Crohn's disease (CD).
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, based in the US, has awarded US$1,390,086.00 (about NZ$2,430,000) to the University of Otago, Faculty of Medicine – Christchurch Ōtautahi, to collaborate with research teams in both Australia and India for the three-year study.
Professor Richard Gearry
Principal Investigator Professor Richard Gearry from the Department of Medicine's Gastrointestinal Unit for Translational Studies (GUTS) says the grant will allow researchers to develop more accurate and affordable diagnostic tests for CD.
"We are extremely grateful to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for this generous support to help investigate this disease," Professor Gearry says.
"The Helmsley Charitable Trust has a long history of funding cutting-edge research which has the potential to be impactful for people with Crohn's disease. We are humbled that our novel work has been selected by the Trust and look forward to making a difference for people with Crohn's disease worldwide."
He says the world is facing an increase in cases of Crohn's disease.
"Soon more than one per cent of the population in Western countries will have inflammatory bowel disease or IBD. Furthermore, studies from the most populous, and newly industrialised regions of the world show that the increasing incidence of CD is mirroring what has previously been described in the developed world," Professor Gearry says.
"Current diagnosis and management of IBD focuses on identifying and treating intestinal inflammation. In the face of this surge in patient numbers we need more efficient ways of diagnosing and assessing inflammation in people with CD so that timely and effective treatments can be prescribed and monitored."
Professor Gearry says current methods to measure CD activity in people are limited.
"Existing biomarkers are either inaccurate, expensive or have long turnaround times which limit their utility," he explains.
"We really need to develop a new biomarker for the disease which would provide rapid results and cost-effective care for patients worldwide. This is our aim."
The study will aim to develop a better and more cost-effective biomarker test than faecal calprotectin (fCAL), which measures gut inflammation. It is an expensive test, however, especially in the developing world, with a long turnaround time in commercial laboratories. Delays in obtaining results also adversely impact the timeliness of treatment decisions for patients.
"We propose that a superior, rapid and cheap point-of-care test for gut inflammation can be developed by measuring the enzyme activity of something called myeloperoxidase (MPO) in faeces," Professor Gearry says.
"We have previously extracted and accurately quantified MPO protein and enzyme activity in faeces and shown that faecal MPO (fMPO) was an accurate biomarker of IBD in a patient cohort study undertaken by researchers in our campus's Mātai Hāora-Centre for Redox Biology and Medicine."
Researchers from GUTS, alongside the campus's Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, will collaborate with scientists and clinicians from Brisbane's Logan Hospital and the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) in Hyderabad, India, to examine the effectiveness of MPO as a novel biomarker for CD.
Co-researcher and gastroenterologist Dr Akhilesh Swaminathan – who completed some of the PhD work for the study at Otago's Christchurch campus – will run the Logan Hospital arm of the study; IBD expert Dr Rupa Banerjee will run the Hyderabad arm of the study.
"Our strategy will assess links between fMPO and CD activity in Indian IBD patients referred for colonoscopy for chronic diarrhoea and then assess its performance in detecting CD in patients," Professor Gearry says.
"The Holy Grail would be to develop a simple and inexpensive point-of-care fMPO test which will pave the way for the development of a cheap and accurate test to investigate gut inflammation in IBD in both western and newly industrialized nations."
University of Otago Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation, Professor Gregory Cook, says the University is proud to see Professor Gearry and his team's international expertise recognised and further empowered through this generous funding.
"This significant and prestigious grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust underscores the research strength and long-standing scientific commitment of Professor Gearry and his team to one of the most challenging areas of inflammatory bowel disease," Professor Cook says.
"Their world-leading work investigating biomarkers such as MPO reflects a clear and sustained focus on advancing diagnostic science in Crohn's disease. This support will enable them to deepen that investigation, refine promising methodologies, and contribute high-impact evidence to a field where improved diagnostic precision is urgently needed."
