Effect of Vedolizumab on Immune Cells

The widespread success of vedolizumab in treating IBD has shown how important the integrin α4β7 that it blocks is to inflammation in IBD.

We have performed detailed analyses of immune cells in the blood and intestinal biopsies taken from people before and during vedolizumab therapy to observe how they change and differ between people who do or do not respond to this medication. We have also performed experiments with blood cells from healthy donors to see how vedolizumab directly interacts with the immune system in culture.

These experiments have suggested specific “biomarkers” that may predict or determine treatment success, and identified a specific immune cell population as a key driver of IBD in humans.