Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients with impaired quality of life on biologic therapy benefit from the support of an IBD nurse specialist: Results of a randomised controlled trial in Germany (IBDBIO-ASSIST study).

BACKGROUND: IBDBIO-ASSIST was a randomised controlled trial assessing the efficacy of care provided by IBD nurse specialists in Germany in improving health-related quality of life (QoL) in IBD patients on biologic therapy. AIM: To evaluate patient-related outcomes and economic consequences associated with integrating IBD nurses into usual care. METHODS: We randomly assigned 1086 patients with IBD on biologic therapy to a control group (CG) receiving usual care or an intervention group (IG) receiving additional care from an IBD nurse specialist. The primary outcome was disease-specific QoL (sIBDQ) assessed at 6, 12 and 18 months. RESULTS: At baseline, patients in both groups were highly satisfied with their treatment situation and had relatively high sIBDQ values (range: 1-7; CG: 5.12; IG: 4.92). In the intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis of the overall sample, there was no significant difference in sIBDQ between groups at the assessment time points. However, a per-protocol analysis of patients with impaired QoL at baseline (EQ-VAS < 75 [median]), showed improvement in sIBDQ over 6 months that became significant at month 12 and remained significant through month 18 (baseline: IG 4.24; CG 4.31; 18 months: IG 5.02; CG 4.76; p = 0.017). CONCLUSION: High baseline satisfaction of IBD patients with treatment and the relatively high baseline sIBDQ values may have contributed to the lack of significant difference in sIBDQ scores for the overall sample. However, patients with impaired QoL derived significant benefit from additional care provided by an IBD nurse specialist, leading to meaningful improvements in sIBDQ over the long term.

A dietary carbohydrate - gut Parasutterella - human fatty acid biosynthesis metabolic axis in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Recent rodent microbiome experiments suggest that besides Akkermansia, Parasutterella sp. are important in type 2 diabetes and obesity development. In the present translational human study, we aimed to characterize Parasutterella in our European cross-sectional FoCus cohort (n = 1,544) followed by validation of the major results in an independent Canadian cohort (n = 438). In addition, we examined Parasutterella abundance in response to a weight loss intervention (n = 55). Parasutterella was positively associated with BMI and type 2 diabetes independently of the reduced microbiome α/ß diversity and low-grade inflammation commonly found in obesity. Nutritional analysis revealed a positive association with the dietary intake of carbohydrates but not with fat or protein consumption. Out of 126 serum metabolites differentially detectable by untargeted HPLC-based MS-metabolomics, L-cysteine showed the strongest reduction in subjects with high Parasutterella abundance. This is of interest, since Parasutterella is a known high L-cysteine consumer and L-cysteine is known to improve blood glucose levels in rodents. Furthermore, metabolic network enrichment analysis identified an association of high Parasutterella abundance with the activation of the human fatty acid biosynthesis pathway suggesting a mechanism for body weight gain. This is supported by a significant reduction of the Parasutterella abundance during our weight loss intervention. Together, these data indicate a role for Parasutterella in human type 2 diabetes and obesity, whereby the link to L-cysteine might be relevant in type 2 diabetes development and the link to the fatty acid biosynthesis pathway for body weight gain in response to a carbohydrate-rich diet in obesity development.