TOward a better understanding of the autoPhagy machinery for the Identification of potential novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in Crohn's disease – TOPIC

Crohn’ disease (CD) is a chronic disabling inflammatory bowel disease affecting around one million people in Europe. Gut inflammation results from an inappropriate immune response against intestinal microbiota occurring on a predisposed genetic background. Several genes of susceptibility have been identified for CD and numerous concern autophagy. Autophagy is a process of degradation and recycling of damaged contents and microbes in cells. We have shown that in CD patients expressing autophagy related polymorphisms, the dynamic of autophagy is seriously affected: we hypothesize that such dynamic dysregulation of autophagy in immune cells contributes to disease severity. Therefore, we will investigate in patients expressing the most frequent autophagy-related polymorphisms, the link between the dynamic of autophagy in CD patients and the gut microbiota, disease severity and functional autophagy activity. This translational and collaborative project should allow assessing the autophagy as a relevant therapeutic target in CD and also identifying novel biomarkers to stratify patients with regards to disease severity and subsequently helping making therapeutic decisions.