antibiotics for ulcerative colitis??
there has been ongoing speculation that there is a bacterial cause of ulcerative colitis (UC). Fusobacterium varium, in a prior study by the same researchers below, was found in actively inflamed colonic mucosa of patients with UC. (also, in mice, butyric acid, a byproduct of F. varium, causes UC-like lesions). so, this group devised an antibiotic cocktail active against F. varium (tid regimen of amoxacillin 500mg, tetracycline 500mg, and metronidazole 250mg for 2 weeks) and assessed its efficacy both in 30 patients with steroid-refractory and 64 patients with steroid-dependent active UC ( see ulcerative colitis and antibiotics aliment pharm 2014 in dropbox, or doi:10.1111/apt.12688) . primary endpoint was clinical response at 3 months after treatment completion. secondary endpoints were significant clinical and endoscopic score improvement at 12 months. results: --Japanese multi-center non-randomized study. mean age 40. in steroid-dependent group,...