Miguel Regueiro, MD, on Considerations for the “New Kid” on the Block: S1P Modulators

Dr Regueiro spoke to the Advances in Inflammatory Disease regional meeting on April 16 about the potential and promise of a new therapeutic agent for the treatment of IBD, S1P modulators.

Miguel Regueiro, MD, is professor and chair of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

TRANSCRIPT:

Dr Miguel Regueiro: I'm Dr. Miguel Regueiro. I'm chair and professor at Cleveland Clinic in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. At IBD Regionals, which was virtual this year, I spoke on the new kid on the block for treatment. This is S1P, and S1P is sphingosine-1-phosphate agonist.

These are a new class of molecules, which have come out for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. While they're not yet approved, we're hoping on the horizon, and very soon they will be approved. The biggest difference with these are these are considered small molecules, so they're not monoclonal antibodies like the biologics that we're used to today. They're taken as an oral pill. 

The way they work is they work to block the lymphocytes leaving the lymph nodes. Essentially, they block the inflammatory cells from getting to the inflamed gut tissue, which is what we see in inflammatory bowel disease. One of the unique aspects is the mechanism of action of these S1Ps. It's truly different than what we've seen before. 

We're very excited to have this on the horizon coming soon for inflammatory bowel disease. My talk really outlined these but also put these in the perspective as far as the treatment paradigm of inflammatory bowel disease. I gave my glimpse, as what I would say, the future of IBD management.