Introduction
Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. It is a multifactorial, polygenic disease with genetic heterogeneity. In addition to genetic predisposition, various host (e.g., epithelial, immune, and nonimmune) and environmental factors play a major role in the pathogenesis of CD [
1,
2]. Guidelines recommend that most patients with active disease should be treated initially with corticosteroids [
3,
4]. Although this approach is usually effective for control of symptoms, many patients become refractory to, or dependent on, these drugs [
5,
6]. For this reason, a treatment with corticosteroid-sparing drugs, such as azathioprine, mercaptopurine, or methotrexate, should be initiated [
7‐
9]. Recent published data underline the concept of an early combined immunosuppression in CD, the so-called “top-down” strategy [
10]. A combined immunosuppressive therapy with antimetabolites/methotrexate and TNF-α antagonists is associated with a higher risk of opportunistic infections and hepatosplenic T cell lymphoma [
11]. Therefore, great efforts have been made to predict disease behavior over time and the response to treatment in CD. Early introduction of more aggressive therapies to patients at high risk of disabling disease, and no introduction of predictable refractory treatments to reduce side effects of therapies, could become possible [
12]. Attempts have been made to define clinical subgroups on the basis of age at onset, disease location, extent (diffuse or localized), and behavior (primary inflammatory, fistulizing, or fibrostenotic disease). Mucosal TNF-α transcripts in steroid-refractory CD patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy may have predictive values [
13].
Crohn’s disease has a strong genetic component, with a lifetime risk of 10–20% to develop CD in the presence of an affected first-degree relative, thus defining subgroups based on genetic mutations might be a helpful marker [
14,
15]. To date, genome-wide meta-analysis has identified at least 71 loci that confer susceptibility to CD [
16]; the first, and most consistently replicated, critical mutations were found in the
CARD15/NOD2 gene on chromosome 16 (IBD1) [
17]. The physiological role of the NOD2 protein remains under detailed examination. Variant
NOD2 alleles are associated with reduced (alpha)-defensin release from Paneth cells in response to bacteria [
18]. Of particular importance is the C-terminus leucine-rich repeat domain, reportedly the major structural motif that functions as a pattern-recognition receptor for the microbial component muramyl dipeptide [
19].
Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms of
NOD2 (
p.Arg702Trp and p.Gly908Arg) and a frame-shift mutation (
p.Leu1007fsX1008) were shown by independent groups to be associated with susceptibility to CD [
20‐
22]. The presence of 1 variant allele increases the risk of developing CD from 1.5- to 4.3-fold; the presence of 2 copies increases the risk to 20- to 40-fold [
23‐
25]. CD patients with
NOD2 mutations exhibit early onset of the disease, mainly ileal involvement and increased risk of surgical intervention after developing complications such as strictures, fistulas and stenosis [
14,
17,
26].
NOD2 mutation carrier status does currently not allow the predicting of disease progression and the need of immunosuppressive therapies such as steroids, azathioprine or biologicals (i.e. TNF-α antagonists).
Based on these observations, we aimed to test a possible influence of the NOD2 carrier status on response to standard medical treatments. Such understanding could personalize therapy.
Discussion
Treatment algorithms and the drug history in CD in dependence on the NOD2 mutation carrier status have not yet been investigated. We have shown that patients with CD and NOD2 carrier status were more refractory for steroids but could be treated well with immunosuppressives. The patients with WT NOD2 status, who were steroid-dependent, showed a significantly lower response to treatment with immunomodulators (AZA/6-MP).
In our patients, more CD patients with
NOD2 variants were refractory to treatment with budesonide and/or prednisolone. In a multivariate logistic regression model, treatment success with prednisolone was independent of disease localization (ileal site), stricturing or internal fistulizing disease behavior, and the need for surgery
. Another study could not find an association of
NOD2 carrier status and response to steroids [
29]. In contrast to the study of Weiss et al
., median age of disease is >18 years in our study cohort. Carrying out the analysis of treatment responses in dependence of
NOD2 variants may differ significantly between patient cohorts with pediatric and adult CD patients.
Associations between polymorphism in the
TNF-α gene, but not in the multidrug resistance gene 1 (MDR-1), and response to treatment with steroids has been described in an Italian pediatric IBD cohort [
30]. High expression of glucocorticoid receptors by mononuclear cells in the peripheral blood of CD patients may predict the response to treatment with steroids [
31]. Data of glucocorticoid receptor expression of CD patients with or without
NOD2 mutation carrier status are still missing. In patients receiving TNF-α antagonists gene expression profiling and
IL-
23R variants may predict treatment response to TNF-α antagonists [
32,
33]. It might be possible that patients with a reduced glucorticoid receptor expression could have benefited from early combination therapy with immunosuppressants [
12].
In our study, CD patients with NOD2 WT status responded to steroids. The percentage of patients with NOD2 WT status refractory to budesonide or prednisolone was decreased as compared to patients with NOD2 carrier status.
More patients with
NOD2 carrier status were treated with AZA/6-MP, and the percentage of patients going into remission under treatment with AZA/6-MP was increased as compared to patients with
NOD2 WT status. AZA/6-MP metabolites and TPMT activity were not detected on a routine basis in our study [
34,
35]. Because most patients received remission under treatment with AZA/6-MP, the discrepancy between patients with
NOD2 WT status and patients with
NOD2 variants may be associated with genetic and biochemical factors that need to be defined in future studies.
The AZA/6-MP refractory patients with
NOD2 WT showed response to TNF-α antagonists. Several studies have investigated the influence of
NOD2 polymorphism on response to TNF-α antagonists.
NOD2 polymorphism is not predictive for the outcome of treatment with infliximab [
36,
37]. We included in our study patients treated with infiximab and adalimumab which may explain differences to previous studies.
NOD2 carriers are characterized by early onset of CD associated with strictures and penetrating disease behavior and increased need for surgery as previously reported [
38‐
40]. In our patients,
NOD2 carriers are characterized by early onset of disease, but increased need for surgery could not be confirmed.
Disease phenotype and location are considered to predict disabling disease. Young age, smoking habits, perianal lesions and severe ulcerations are clinical predictors of risk for progressive disease [
15,
41]. All treatment regimens in our study were chosen by an algorithmic approach based on national guidelines [
27]. Selection of medication depended on the interpretation of the clinical data by the individual physician blinded to the
NOD2 genotype status.
Interpretation of the results of our study is limited by the facts that analysis of remission rates depending on treatment regimen was carried out in a retrospective manner, and not in a prospective controlled clinical trial at a single IBD study center only, and not in a multicentre approach. In our study with a limited sample size, a replication cohort is missing. Carrying out genome-wide association studies (GWAS) could be particularly interesting to identify additional variants associated with disease behavior and response to treatment with standard medication.
The task to choose the right medication for an individual IBD patient will likely become more complex in future. Although the prediction of treatment response by phenotype, genotype and serological parameters is still in its infancy, the individual choice of the treatment regimen may help to maximize efficacy, minimize delays to effective treatment, and improve safety and tolerability.
In conclusion, our data show that CD patients without NOD2 mutations suffering from a steroid-dependent or refractory course have significantly less chance to reach steroid-free remission by a treatment with immunosuppressive agents as compared to CD patients with NOD2 mutations, which was independent disease localization (ileal site), stricturing or internal fistulizing disease behavior, and the need for surgery. Otherwise, these NOD2 WT status patients were very sensitive to anti-TNF-α antibodies and all patients reached steroid-free remission. Although this group of patients was small in our study, our results give a first hint that a top-down therapy strategy could be effective especially in these patients. Further studies are needed to prove this concept. This could be an important step toward a personalized therapy in CD patients.