Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 14, 2016; 22(42): 9300-9313
Published online Nov 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i42.9300
Molecular mechanism of action of anti-tumor necrosis factor antibodies in inflammatory bowel diseases
Ulrike Billmeier, Walburga Dieterich, Markus F Neurath, Raja Atreya
Ulrike Billmeier, Walburga Dieterich, Markus F Neurath, Raja Atreya, Medical Clinic 1, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
Author contributions: Billmeier U wrote the manuscript; and Dieterich W, Neurath MF and Atreya R critically reviewed the manuscript.
Supported by DFG-CRC1181 - Project number (C02); and a research operating grant from the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Raja Atreya has served as advisor for AbbVie and Markus F Neurath has served as advisor for MSD, AbbVie, Takeda, Boehringer, Giuliani.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Raja Atreya, MD, Professor, Medical Clinic 1, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Ulmenweg 18, 91054 Erlangen, Germany. raja.atreya@uk-erlangen.de
Telephone: +49-9131-8535115 Fax: +49-9131-8535116
Received: July 10, 2016
Peer-review started: July 13, 2016
First decision: July 29, 2016
Revised: September 15, 2016
Accepted: October 10, 2016
Article in press: October 10, 2016
Published online: November 14, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: To improve the response rates of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases to anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy, it is mandatory to understand the pleiotropic effects of these agents. Herein, we overview and discuss several immunological targets of anti-TNF antibody application and highlight the most important findings.