The potential impact of DocTIS

Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are complex and chronic conditions that significantly affect the quality of life of patients, often requiring continuous medical care. These diseases have a prevalence of between 5% to 7% in Western countries.

These conditions are marked by the activation of the immune system in the absence of infection, toxin, or apparent cause. This chronic activation of defence mechanisms compromises the integrity and functionality of tissues and organs, reducing the patient’s quality of life, increasing the risk of additional disorders, and shortening life expectancy. For many years, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases have been treated with medications that are able to transiently control inflammation in only a subgroup of patients. Furthermore, these targeted therapies have ultimately proven to be largely ineffective in achieving sustained disease remission.

Aiming to develop personalized and innovative therapies for patients with these diseases, the DocTIS project focuses on the six most common and socioeconomically important immune-mediated inflammatory diseases:

• Psoriasis, affecting between 1% and 3% of the population.
• Psoriatic Arthritis, with an estimated prevalence of between 0.1% and 1% (approximately one-third of psoriasis patients develop this condition).
• Rheumatoid Arthritis, affecting between 0.5% and 1% of the European population.
• Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis, affecting 1.5 and 2 million people respectively in Europe and North America, with a prevalence greater than 0.3%.
• Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, with incidence rates in Europe generally ranging between 2 and 4.7 per 100,000 per year.

Some immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis, have a similar prevalence among men and women. However, others IMIDs like Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, affect women much more frequently.

To improve the lives of patients, while considering the significant gender differences in these diseases, the DocTIS project works to identify effective combinatorial therapies of existing medications that produce superior clinical results compared to current treatments with a single medicine.

The consequences, also economic

Although long-term studies are still scarce, there is increasing evidence that IMIDs are raising in incidence. Together with their high prevalence, this indicates that it will be necessary to reevaluate the impact of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases on healthcare systems to continue providing quality care for patients.

People living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, for example, represent an average cost of between €3,000 and €5,000 per year. This cost is highly variable, depending on the severity of the disease, and can include a wide variety of expenses like hospitalizations, surgical procedures, medication, travel, or informal care.

The success of the DocTIS project could lead to a significant reduction in all costs associated with these diseases, which, according to a 2015 study (*), already represent 30% of the total pharmaceutical budget of European hospitals.

Open Access to Scientific Heritage

To achieve its goals, the DocTIS project is using cutting-edge genomic technologies, animal models, deep medical record data, high-quality biobank samples, and clinical expertise to identify therapies that can be combined to significantly improve the efficacy and reduce chronic inflammation to its lowest levels. The project is also using methods to predict the group of patients in which these drug combinations would be more effective.

The techniques developed and the results obtained by the project are currently being evaluated by peer review and disseminated through the publication of scientific articles in open-access journals. Altogether, these allow the achievements of DocTIS to serve not only as a key advancement for IMID treatment, but also as the basis for new research lines in translational research and precision medicine in other complex diseases.

 

(*) "Estimating the Costs of Therapy in Patients with Relapsed and/or Refractory Multiple Myeloma: A Model Framework" (Am Health Drug Benefits. 2015 Jun; 8(4): 204–215). By Anuja Roy, PhD, MBA, Jonathan K. Kish, PhD, MPH, Lisa Bloudek, PharmD, MS, David S. Siegel, MD, PhD, Sundar Jagannath, MD, Denise Globe, PhD, Emil T. Kuriakose, MD, and Kristen Migliaccio-Walle, BS.

(Above image by DC Studio in Freepik)