Translating nutritional immunology into drug development for inflammatory bowel disease

To highlight recent advances in the understanding of nutritional immunology and in the development of novel therapeutics for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

We highlight the variety of factors that contribute to the interaction of the immune system and nutrition including the microbiome and the nervous system stimulation of the gut. We describe the potential for therapeutic development in IBD. Further, we review the cellular metabolic effects on immune activation and promising therapeutic targets. Finally, we show how the progression of understanding the role of lanthionine synthetase C-like 2 has encompassed both nutritional and therapeutic advances and led to the development of novel oral small molecule therapeutics for IBD.

Nutritional immunology and drug development research centered around immunoregulatory pathways can provide safer and more effective drugs while accelerating the path to cures.