Inflammatory bowel disease patients undergoing biological therapy

The gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem that consists of viruses, fungi, bacteria, archaea, and protozoa. They can exert beneficial functions such as protection against pathogen invasion or production of essential vitamins. Occasionally, this ecosystem gets out of balance, resulting in gut dysbiosis. Gut dysbiosis is associated with several diseases, one of which is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Thus far, little is known about the role of the viral component in IBD aetiology and activity. To elucidate it further, we investigated the gut virome in a large prospective cohort of active patients initiating biological therapy. Fecal samples were collected from a total of 181 IBD patients. All patients had active disease at baseline and were treated with one out of four biological therapies. Pre-intervention and post-intervention samples were collected from every patient. We hypothesized and showed associations between the patients gut virota and therapy response.