In Crohn's disease (CD), 10% to 40% of patients do not respond to anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) treatment. Currently, there are no biomarkers with adequate sensitivity to separate responders from nonresponders at an early stage.
The aim of this study was to investigated whether early changes in the VICM (citrullinated and matrix metalloproteinase-degraded vimentin) biomarker were associated with response to anti-TNFα treatment in patients with CD.
Serum VICM levels were measured by ELISA in 2 independent cohorts of CD patients (n=42) treated with anti-TNFα (infliximab or adalimumab). Response was determined by achieving clinical remission (Harvey Bradshaw Index<5).
Compared with baseline, VICM serum levels were reduced by anti-TNFα in the infliximab cohort (week 6 and 14) and in the adalimumab cohort (week 8). VICM was lower in the responders compared with the nonresponders [infliximab: week 6, P<0.05; area under the curve (AUC)=0.90; adalimumab: week 1, P<0.01 (AUC=0.91), and week 8, P<0.05 (AUC=0.86)], and were able to predict response to treatment after 1 week of treatment with an odds ratio of 42.5.
The VICM biomarker was time dependently reduced in CD patients responding to anti-TNFα treatment. We suggest that VICM may be used as a marker for monitoring early response to anti-TNFα in patients with CD.