Blood expression profiling of an adult inflammatory bowel disease cohort

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a progressive disease of the gut and consists of two types, Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). It is a complex disease involving genetic, microbial, and environmental factors. The incidence of IBD is steadily increasing and current therapeutic options are plateauing. Thus treatments are evolving to 1. deeper levels of remission from clinical to endoscopic and histologic normalization and 2. Embrace novel targets or drug combinations. We explored whole transcriptome data generated in blood specimens sampled from a large cohort of adult IBD and control subjects to provide 1. a granular, objective and sensitive molecular measures of disease activity in the gut and 2. Novel molecular mechanisms and biomarkers underlying IBD pathology. Overall design: The Mount Sinai Crohn's and Colitis registry (MSCCR) is a prospective cross-sectional cohort consisting of adult IBD patients and controls. Blood RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data were generated on whole blood sampled at the time of the participant's endoscopy visit which also included detailed clinical, histological and endoscopic assessments.