Researchers have identified a potential new strategy for treating Crohn’s disease, one that shifts the focus from managing symptoms to repairing the gut’s damaged lining. By repurposing two existing cancer medications, scientists believe they may be able to stop the cycle of inflammation that drives the condition and allow the intestine to heal itself.
Crohn’s disease affects roughly 1 million Americans. It involves a chronic cycle in which the immune system attacks the epithelial lining of the gut, breaking down the barrier that keeps bacteria and toxins out. When that barrier fails, harmful substances leak into the body, fueling further inflammation and disease progression. Current anti-inflammatory drugs help manage flares, but only about 20% of patients achieve sustained remission with standard treatments.
In a study published in Gastro Hep Advances, a team from the University of Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, and MD Anderson Cancer Center proposed that the disease is driven by inherent defects in the epithelial cells themselves. Under chronic stress, these cells stop regenerating and instead undergo a form of programmed cell death called necroptosis, which triggers more inflammation. The researchers found that two drugs already approved by the FDA, Pazopanib and Ponatinib, can block this stress signal and the subsequent cell death, allowing the epithelial lining to repair naturally. Importantly, the drugs were used at low concentrations, which the team says is key to promoting healing without causing harm.
The study also used patient derived organoids, or “mini organs” grown from actual Crohn’s patient tissue. This approach makes the results highly relevant to human biology and strengthens the case for moving toward clinical trials. Repurposing existing medications offers a major advantage: it bypasses the typical 10 to 15 years and 1 to 2 billion dollars needed to develop a new drug from scratch.
Senior author Seema Khurana, a professor of biology and biochemistry at UH, noted that for patients living with chronic Crohn’s, time is critical. “Our goal was to make our findings much more translatable to real patients,” she said. The next step will be to advance the drugs into human trials, with the hope of offering a treatment that addresses the root cause of the disease rather than just its symptoms.