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Innovative, complementary and alternative therapy in inflammatory bowel diseases: A broad 2020s update

Letizia Masi1, Cristina Ciuffini2, Valentina Petito1,2

  • 1Centro per le Malattie dell'Apparato Digerente (CEMAD), Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" IRCCS, Roma, Italy.

Frontiers in Gastroenterology (Lausanne, Switzerland)
|March 13, 2026
PubMed

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic disabling conditions with a complex and multifactorial etiology, which is still not completely understood. In the last 20 years, anti-TNF-α antagonists have revolutionized the treatment of IBD, but many patients still do not respond or experience adverse events. Therefore, new biological therapies and small molecules, targeting several different pathways of gut inflammation, have been developed of which some have already been introduced in clinical practice while many others are currently investigated. Moreover, therapeutic procedures such as leukocytapheresis, fecal microbiota transplant and stem cell transplantation are currently being investigated for treating IBD. Lastly, complementary and alternative medicine has become a field of interest for gastroenterologist to reduce symptom burden in IBD patients. In this comprehensive and updated review, a novel classification of current and developing drugs is provided.

Keywords:
biologic drugscomplementary and alternative medicinecrohn’s diseaseinnovative therapiessmall moleculesulcerative colitis

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