Dr. Bull is is a Senior Lecturer in Infectious Diseases and Associate Dean of the Biological Research Facility at St. George’s University of London. His presentation discusses his research on dormant forms of MAP and why cattle is the preferred host. He discusses factors which may activate MAP out of dormancy in vitro and what is known about the genetics and properties of human strains of MAP. Questions from the audience follow the presentation.
Dr. Chamberlin is a gastroenterologist at the San Antonio Military Medical Center in Texas. In his talk, he presents evidence of healing in Crohn’s disease patients treated with antibiotics. He also reviews some of the literature on antibiotic treatment in Crohn’s disease and discusses the flawed Selby antibiotic trial. “Do antibiotics have a positive effect on Crohn’s disease? Absolutely.”
Dr. J. Todd Kuenstner details 5 case studies of related patients diagnosed with combinations of Crohn’s disease, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Raynaud’s phenomenon, Type 1 Diabetes and Lymphangiomatosis who also tested positive for MAP. Two cases were successfully treated with antibiotics and ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy. A Q&A session follows the presentation.
Dr. Harry Oken is an Internal Medicine practitioner and a professor at the University of Maryland. Here, he presents one of his most challenging cases which had some of the hallmarks of Crohn’s disease, and was eventually resolved by a regimen of 5 antibiotics. The patient tested positive for MAP, and Dr. Oken hypothesizes that the MAP infection damaged the nerves in the ileum, leading to disease. This report suggests that MAP may be able to cause a variety of chronic illnesses apart from Crohn’s disease.
Dr. David Y. Graham is a gastroenterologist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Here, he details a long term study conducted on Crohn’s disease incidence in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Over time, the rate of Crohn’s disease increased significantly from 4.8 cases per 100,000 to 8.0 cases per 100,000. PCR (IS900 series) testing for MAP DNA in Crohn’s patients revealed that 76.7% were positive after 1 test, but when the researchers repeated the test up to 4 times, 100% of the Crohn’s patients eventually tested positive for MAP DNA. Imported beef and dairy may provide an explanation for the increase in disease.
Dr. Irene Grant is a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology and Food Safety at Queen’s University, Belfast Ireland. In her presentation, she explains and contrasts a variety of methods for detecting MAP in milk, details the latest advances from her lab including PMS-phage assay. which detects higher levels of MAP in milk and infant formula. Discussion of how PMS-phage assay for MAP could be applied to human blood samples and a Q&A session follows.
Prof. Thomas Borody is a gastroenterologist who is the founder and Medical Director of the Centre for Digestive Diseases in Sydney, Australia. He has established novel therapies in gastrointestinal areas such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Parasite infestation, Resistant Helicobacter pylori and C. difficile. In this presentation, he discusses how he treats MAP-driven Crohn’s disease, treatment for fistulae, the synergy of infliximab and antibiotics, and antibiotics in treatment-naive patients. Anti-MAP therapy for pyoderma gangrenosum is also briefly discussed. A group of patients have long-term, medication free remission due to Anti-MAP therapy.
Dr. Shafran is a gastroenterologist who has been practicing in the Orlando area since 1979. He has used Anti-MAP therapy as part of his practice, and talks about his experience treating patients, including why current therapies have no role in treating Crohn’s disease in his opinion. Research from Crohn’s patients who have been treated with antibiotics is presented. Deep mucosal healing and sustained remission was found in 11 patients over an 18 year period.
Dr. Kalfus is a Medical Director at RedHill Biopharma, which is currently conducting a Phase III FDA trial of a specific combination of antibiotics in Crohn’s disease patients. In his presentation, Dr. Kalfus gives the reason behind triple therapy for MAP and how the three antibiotics were selected. He also talks about how the currently available Crohn’s therapies have some anti-MAP activity. MAP diagnostics, the Selby study and the ongoing RedHill study are also discussed.
Dr. Greenstein is a researcher in the Laboratory of Molecular Surgical Research at the VA Medical Center in Bronx, NY. He presents his research explaining why he believes that the primary action of current Crohn’s disease therapies is really Anti-MAP, and hypothesizes that Crohn’s disease may be the tip of the MAP iceberg. The antimycobacterial effect of Vitamin D is also discussed.
