A new trial starts in Scotland this month which will look at whether a partial liquid nutrition diet could be beneficial for those with Crohn’s Disease. An enteral nutrition diet involves a patient only consuming liquid nutrition, usually through specially prescribed formula drinks that have a careful balanced of nutrients, for a short-term period to rest the bowel and help induce remission.
Modulen IBD® is a drink that has been specifically designed for use in Crohn’s patients in order to induce disease remission. It is 100% casein-based and contains an anti-inflammatory cytokine that can help in the inflammatory response.
Enteral nutrition is low-risk and is often recommended as first-line therapy in children with Crohn’s disease with remission rates of up to 80%. However, it’s not often used in adults largely because patients find it very hard to stick to. Although research has found it to be effective, patients often drop out because of the taste of the drinks and not being able to stick it as it is usually recommended for eight weeks. However, alternatives like biological drugs are not always effective either and patients can develop resistance to drugs.
A new trial is to begin in Scotland. Led by the University of Glasgow, this will evaluate a compromise: instead of placing patients on a full liquid diet, it will use Partial Enteral Nutrition. This will involve patients replacing 50% of their normal diet with liquid-only supplements.
The Biopic Study will involve 80 people with active Crohn’s disease who currently need treatment with biologics (such as Humira or infliximab) from six hospitals across Scotland. Patients will either just take biologics or be prescribed a mixture of biologics and partial enteral nutrition-where they replace 50% of their diet with liquid-only replacements and then eat normally the rest of the time.
The study will find whether the combination of biologics and PEN will improve patients’ overall response to medications and prolong their disease remission when compared with patients who are only being treated with biologics by comparing their quality of life, body composition, and nutrient levels. Interestingly, it will also look into how each of these two treatment regimens changes our gut microbiome.
The team behind this say:
“This novel dietary regime has the potential to transform the current treatment of Crohn’s disease, offering better disease control and a better quality of life for patients. This high caliber study adds to our current research portfolio which aims to unravel the dietary causes of Crohn’s disease and to develop tolerable, side-effect-free dietary therapies for long-term disease management.
The idea of using partial enteral nutrition alongside biologics for Crohn’s Disease is a promising step toward improving treatment outcomes and quality of life for patients. Balancing liquid nutrition with regular meals could enhance adherence while potentially boosting remission rates and exploring its effects on the gut microbiome adds an exciting dimension to this research. It’s encouraging to see innovative approaches that aim to make therapies more sustainable and effective.