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Background The prevalence and perceived effectiveness of marijuana use has not been well studied in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) despite increasing legal permission for its use in Crohn's disease. Health care providers have little guidance about the IBD symptoms that may improve with marijuana use. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence, sociodemographic characteristics, and perceived benefits of marijuana use among patients with IBD. Methods Prospective cohort survey study of marijuana use patterns in patients with IBD at an academic medical center. Results A total of 292 patients completed the survey (response rate = 94%); 12.3% of patients were active marijuana users, 39.0% were past users, and 48.6% were never users. Among current and past users, 16.4% of patients used marijuana for disease symptoms, the majority of whom felt that marijuana was “very helpful” for relief of abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea. On multivariate analysis, age and chronic abdominal pain were associated with current marijuana use (odds ratio [OR], 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.89–0.97; P < 0.001 and OR, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.24-9.82; P = 0.02). Age and chronic abdominal pain were also multivariate predictors of medicinal use of marijuana (OR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.89–0.97; P < 0.001 and OR, 4.7; 95% CI, 1.8–12.2; P = 0.001). Half of the never users expressed an interest in using marijuana for abdominal pain, were it legally available. Conclusions A significant number of patients with IBD currently use marijuana. Most patients find it very helpful for symptom control, including patients with ulcerative colitis, who are currently excluded from medical marijuana laws. Clinical trials are needed to determine marijuana's potential as an IBD therapy and to guide prescribing decisions.

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Background The QUASAR Induction Study 1 (NCT04033445) is a phase 2b randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of guselkumab (GUS), an interleukin-23 p19 subunit antagonist, as induction therapy in patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) who had an inadequate response or intolerance to conventional (ie, thiopurines or corticosteroids) or advanced therapy (ie, tumor necrosis factor alpha antagonists, vedolizumab, or tofacitinib). Methods Patients included in these analyses had moderately to severely active UC (defined as a modified Mayo score of 5 to 9, inclusive) with a Mayo rectal bleeding subscore ≥ 1 and a Mayo endoscopy subscore ≥ 2 obtained during central review of video endoscopy at baseline. Patients were randomized 1:1:1 to receive IV GUS 200 mg, 400 mg, or placebo at Weeks 0, 4, and 8. The primary endpoint was clinical response at Week 12, and major secondary endpoints included clinical remission, symptomatic remission, endoscopic improvement, histo-endoscopic mucosal improvement, and endoscopic normalization at Week 12. Type 1 error was controlled at the 0.05 significance level for the primary endpoint; no other endpoints were controlled for multiplicity. Safety was assessed through Week 12. Results Three hundred thirteen patients were randomized in the primary analysis population (mean age, 41.6 yrs; male 59.1%, mean UC duration, 7.55 yrs; mean Mayo score, 9.2; endoscopy subscore of 3 indicating severe disease, 70%; baseline oral corticosteroid use, 39.6%). Approximately 50% had a prior inadequate response or intolerance to advanced therapy for UC. The baseline demographics and disease characteristics were generally similar among treatment groups (Table 1). At Week 12, a significantly greater proportion of patients treated with GUS 200 mg and 400 mg achieved clinical response compared with placebo (61.4% and 60.7% vs 27.6%, respectively, both p&lt;0.001). A greater proportion of GUS-treated patients compared with placebo-treated patients achieved the major secondary endpoints at Week 12 (Figure 1). The proportions of patients reporting adverse events, serious adverse events, and adverse events leading to discontinuation in the GUS groups were not greater compared with placebo (Table 2). No serious infections were reported for GUS. No cases of malignancy or death were reported. Conclusion In patients with moderately to severely active UC, GUS induction treatment demonstrated superior efficacy compared with placebo treatment. Overall, safety results through Week 12 were consistent with the known safety profile of GUS in approved indications. The efficacy and safety of GUS 200 mg and 400 mg were comparable.

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BackgroundFecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (rCDI). Few studies have evaluated clinical factors associated with microbial engraftment. We describe microbial changes post-FMT and clinical factors impacting engraftment.MethodsPatients undergoing FMT for rCDI via colonoscopy were enrolled. Clinical data and stool were collected pre- and 8 weeks post-FMT. Microbial profiles were assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing. Difference in microbial alpha and β-diversity between groups was determined. Significance testing was assessed using Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon and PERMANOVA tests. The Jensen Shannon divergence (JSD) between donor and their recipient post-FMT was used as a measure of engraftment. The association of clinical factors on engraftment was evaluated by linear regression.ResultsA total of 12 patients received an FMT from 12 unique donors. The efficacy rate was 92%. Mean recipient age was 60 years (range: 33–87) with more females (7/12).Recipients pre-FMT alpha diversity was significantly lower compare to donors (P = 0.04, Figure 1a). This difference dissipated post-FMT (P = 0.67). On β-diversity analysis, the recipients pre-FMT samples clustered separately from their post-FMT samples (P = 0.01, Figure 1b), with the post-FMT samples shifting closer to the donor samples. Proteobacteria was dominant in patients’ pre-FMT samples and were substantially reduced post-FMT, combined with an expansion in Bacteroidetes (Figure 2).On linear regression analysis, clinical factors (age, sex, previous recurrent CDI episodes, inflammatory bowel disease, proton pump inhibitor, immunosuppression, previous anti-CDI antibiotic courses, probiotics) were not significantly associated with engraftment outcomes.ConclusionThere is a significant and durable shift in recipients’ microbial profile to resemble their donor post-FMT. Recipients’ pre-FMT clinical factors did not significantly affect microbial engraftment. Future metagenomic studies may help elucidate whether clinical factors impact engraftment.Figure 1: (A) Alpha diversity. (B) Bray–Curtis principle component plot.Figure 2: Relative abundance of taxa at Phylum level.Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

Background Tofacitinib is an oral, small molecule JAK inhibitor for the treatment of UC. We aimed to describe the real-world treatment experience and corticosteroid utilisation of patients treated with tofacitinib in a US claims database. Methods Patients with a UC diagnosis who initiated tofacitinib, vedolizumab or tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) treatment between May 2018 and July 2019 were identified from the Optum Research Database. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients who initiated tofacitinib, vedolizumab or TNFi were described. Oral corticosteroid use prior to and following tofacitinib initiation was evaluated. Tofacitinib adherence (proportion of days covered) and continuation was assessed for 6 months following initiation. Analyses were descriptive and stratified by prior biologic use (naïve, 1 or ≥ 2; minimum of 12 months prior to tofacitinib initiation). Results Among patients initiating tofacitinib (N = 225), mean age was 45.6 (SD 16.5) years and 50.2% were female. Of these, 43 (19.1%) patients were biologic-naïve and 182 (80.9%) had prior biologic use (92 [40.9%], 1 prior biologic; 90 [40.0%], ≥ 2 prior biologics). Among patients with 1 prior biologic, 82.6% were previously treated with a TNFi. Among patients with ≥ 2 prior biologics, 54.4% were previously treated with vedolizumab and a TNFi, 16.7% with two TNFi and 28.9% with ≥ 3 prior biologics. In the 6 months prior to tofacitinib initiation, 65.8% of patients had received oral corticosteroids (74.4%, 60.9% and 66.7% for biologic-naïve, 1 and ≥ 2 prior biologics, respectively). The proportion of patients with ongoing oral corticosteroid use 3–6 months after tofacitinib initiation decreased to 13.3% (9.3%, 18.5% and 10.0% for biologic-naïve, 1 and ≥ 2 prior biologics, respectively), and 19.6% of patients discontinued oral corticosteroid use during the 6 months after tofacitinib initiation. Overall, tofacitinib adherence, as determined by the mean proportion of days covered during the 6-month follow-up, was 0.7 (median 0.8). During the 6-month follow-up, 84.9% of patients continued tofacitinib. Conclusions Among patients with UC initiating tofacitinib, the majority had prior biologic use. Tofacitinib adherence was high, discontinuation was low and oral corticosteroid utilisation decreased irrespective of prior biologic use. Further research with longer follow-up and a larger sample size is required.

Background Tofacitinib is an oral, small molecule JAK inhibitor for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). Patients may require retreatment following treatment interruption for reasons such as adverse events or pregnancy.1 In the tofacitinib UC clinical programme, patients who responded to tofacitinib 10 mg BID during induction, and experienced treatment failure whilst receiving placebo during maintenance (OCTAVE Sustain) and subsequently received tofacitinib 10 mg BID in the open-label, long-term extension (OLE) study (OCTAVE Open; NCT01470612), comprised the retreatment subpopulation. The efficacy and safety of tofacitinib in the retreatment subpopulation have previously been reported.1 Here, we evaluated patient-reported outcomes to assess rectal bleeding and stool frequency improvement in the retreatment subpopulation in OCTAVE Open. Methods The following efficacy endpoints based on the Mayo subscores were analysed in the overall retreatment subpopulation and by prior tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) failure status: rectal bleeding improvement (≥1 point decrease in rectal bleeding subscore [RBS] from OLE study baseline), and stool frequency improvement (≥1 point decrease in stool frequency subscore [SFS] from OLE study baseline), up to Month (M)6 in the OLE study (full analysis set, non-responder imputation). Changes from baseline in partial Mayo score (PMS), RBS and SFS at M1, by M2 clinical response status, were also analysed (as observed). Results In OCTAVE Open, 101 patients were included in the retreatment subpopulation, of which 46 (45.5%) had prior TNFi failure. Overall, at M1 and M6 of OCTAVE Open, 83.2% and 76.2% of patients had rectal bleeding improvement, respectively (Figure 1). Corresponding values for stool frequency improvement were 70.3% and 75.2%. At most time points, rates of rectal bleeding and stool frequency improvements were similar in patients with and without prior TNFi failure. Mean decrease from baseline in PMS, RBS and SFS at M1 was similar in patients with and without a clinical response at M2 (Figure 2). Conclusion In this post hoc analysis, in patients with UC who had loss of response after 8–52 weeks of treatment interruption, retreatment with tofacitinib 10 mg BID resulted in rectal bleeding and stool frequency improvement in the majority of patients by M1, which was maintained to M6, regardless of prior TNFi failure status. Reference 1. Panés J et al. J Crohns Colitis 2021. Epub ahead of print.