Infliximab in the treatment of pediatric Crohn's disease

Infliximab, a murine monoclonal antibody directed against TNF-α, has been approved for the induction and maintenance of remission in moderate-to-severe pediatric Crohn's disease that is unresponsive to conventional therapy. Infliximab is administered intravenously and can be infused over 2-3 h. The recommended induction dosing schedule consists of a series of three 5 mg/kg doses of infliximab delivered at weeks 0, 2 and 6. Regularly scheduled maintenance therapy is recommended to be given every 8 weeks. While initially it was believed that the administration of concomitant immunomodulators would significantly enhance the clinical efficacy of infliximab, recent data and safety concerns have called the benefit of such a strategy into question. Currently, clinical research on the use of infliximab in pediatric Crohn's disease has focused on the unmet need of being able to identify which patients could benefit most from infliximab therapy.