Inflammatory Bowel Disease: From a ‘White Man’s Disease’ to a Global Challenge – Exploring Novel Biomarkers and Treatments

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was once labelled a 'White man’s disease' due to its ties to industrialized lifestyles, where prolonged exposure to environmental triggers can lead to this debilitating condition over time. From being the disease of developed countries, now it is entwined to developing countries; the only reason behind it is the changes in lifestyle. Treatment options for IBD include 5ASA, TNF alpha inhibitors, cytokine inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies and others. While all these drugs are effective in induction and maintenance phase, no drugs are effective in treating and preventing IBD. Fecal microbiota transplant, probiotics and diet administrations with stem cells have recently developed in treating the disease. There is limited diagnosis available to treat IBD, forcing us to explore new possibilities and approaches to manage and subside IBD along with measures and treatments that prevent the disease from relapsing and recurring. Therefore, here in this review, we have attempted on describing what IBD is, its complications and current treatments available and finally emphasized on the novel biomarkers available or to be in developing stages along with other treatment options available for mitigating the disease including measures that may help prevent IBD from occurring.