# Effect of an Anti-Inflammatory Diet on Gut Homeostasis in Active and Experimental Crohn's Disease

> **NIH NIH K01** · CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $121,770

## Abstract

Project Summary
The inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) subtype, Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory
disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. Although the precise etiology of IBD is not known, evidence suggests that
environmental factors, including diet, contribute to its pathogenesis.1-3 Specifically, dietary amino acids serve as
key regulatory factors in cellular and microbial metabolic pathways, and disturbances in their metabolism,3 as
well as altered presence of amino acid concentrations (blood/feces/urine), are observed in CD patients.4 Diet
has been shown to have a pro-inflammatory effect in CD, but not much is known about anti-inflammatory diets
(e.g., soy).5, 6 Gut microbial modulation via diet is a needed strategy for the therapeutic management of CD;
however, no specific recommendations exist for CD patients. Moreover, studies show that the person-specific
changes elicited by a dietary intervention on host immune/metabolic function reflect unique microbiota
signatures. This proposal will focus on the microbiota-mediated effects of dietary soy and individual amino
acid supplementation in patients with active CD compared to healthy controls. The central hypothesis of this
proposal is that a soy diet induces anti-inflammatory microbiota in CD patients and that the ‘level of response’
for each individual can be predicted by metabolic and microbiome biomarkers. We will test this hypothesis
directly in humans with active CD and mechanistically focus on the effect of dietary soy on the ‘pro-inflammatory
potential’ of gut microbiota in CD patients. Experimentally, we will use our validated human gut microbiota
SAMP1/YitFC; SAMP (hGM-SAMP) mouse model of CD-ileitis to quantify and mechanistically validate the
functional effect of human feces on the severity of CD-ileitis after transplantation into GF SAMP. As a main
objective, we will determine to what extent a soy-based diet could induce changes in fecal/blood inflammatory
biomarkers in patients with active CD. The following aims are a continuation of our efforts to understand the
microbiota-mediated effects of diet on intestinal inflammation. AIM 1: will characterize the effect of dietary soy
in humans with active CD and quantify the inflammatory potential of their gut microbiome using a ‘rapid screening’
hGM-SAMP DSS-colitis model. By stratifying inflammatory microbiome/blood markers, we will identify
biomarkers that could predict ‘responders’/‘non-responders’ to diet. We expect to generate a list of metabolic
and microbiome clinical biomarkers that could be used to monitor response to diet in CD patients. AIM 2: will
determine the impact of soy-associated amino acid dietary supplementation on the microbiome, metabolome
and immunology of a spontaneous CD-like ileitis in hGM-SAMP and SPF SAMP, and AKR control mice. We will
identify functional metabolic mechanisms associated with the severity of mouse CD-ileitis in response to diet.
This proposal is based on strong prelimi...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10320962
- **Project number:** 5K01DK127008-02
- **Recipient organization:** CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Abigail Raffner
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $121,770
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-03-01 → 2025-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10320962

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10320962, Effect of an Anti-Inflammatory Diet on Gut Homeostasis in Active and Experimental Crohn's Disease (5K01DK127008-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10320962. Licensed CC0.

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