Looking for the best anti-colitis medicine: A comparative analysis of current and prospective compounds

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic lifelong inflammatory disorder of the colon, which, while untreated, has a relapsing and remitting course with increasing risk of progression toward colorectal cancer. Current medical treatment strategies of UC mostly focus on inhibition of the signs and symptoms of UC to induce remission and prevent relapse of disease activity, minimizing the impact on quality of life, but not affecting the cause of disease. To date, however, there is no single reliable treatment agent and/or strategy capable of effectively controlling colitis progression throughout the patient's life without side effects, remission, or resistance. Taking into consideration an urgent need for the new colitis treatment strategies, targets and/or modulators of inflammation, we have tested current and prospective compounds for colitis treatment and directly compared their anti-colitis potency using a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) mouse model of colitis. We have introduced a composite score – a multi-parameters comparison tool – to assess biological potency of different compounds.