Crohn’s MAP Vaccine is an awareness and support group comprised of members of the Crohn’s Community. Our mission is to find a cure for Crohn’s Disease. We believe the best hope for that cure lies in the Vaccine and new diagnostic test originally developed by Prof John. Hermon-Taylor. Following his recent retirement in 2021, this work is now lead by his longstanding colleague Prof Jeremy Sanderson (Consultant Gastroenterologist and clinical lead for Gastroenterology at GSTT) in a collaboration between King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals.

What is Crohn’s Disease? Crohn’s Disease is a debilitating and aggressive form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. It affects around 4 million worldwide, including 1.2 million in the USA and over 180,000 in the UK –and numbers are increasing, especially in children. Symptoms include chronic severe abdominal pain, weight loss, bloody diarrhoea and fatigue. Up to 80% of patients will need surgery at some point in their lifetime. There is currently no cure and the lives of most sufferers are blighted by multiple hospital admissions, surgeries, immunosuppressive therapies (and their side effects) and difficulty holding down a job or attending school. 

The Research: A growing body of evidence suggests Crohn’s Disease is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis or MAP (a distant cousin of Tuberculosis) which causes a form of IBD, called Johne's disease, in cattle. MAP can be passed to humans in the food chain through cow’s milk and other dairy products. Many patients with Crohn's disease have been found to be positive for MAP. MAP acts like a trojan horse; it hides inside cells of the immune system altering the function of these cells from within, causing release of chemicals which trigger inflammation whilst evading detection by the immune system itself.

Professor Hermon-Taylor, a surgeon and Crohn's disease expert of 30 years, spent his career developing a therapeutic vaccine against MAP. This work was in collaboration with Professor Sarah Gilbert and her team at the Jenner Institute, Oxford who also developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which is currently being rolled out across the UK. 

The MAP vaccine is a viral vector vaccine designed to stimulate the body’s own immune system to selectively eliminate MAP-infected cells. If MAP is the underlying driver of inflammation in Crohn's disease then it is hoped that its elimination will allow inflammation to settle and the gut to heal. Animal studies in mice and cattle have shown it to be highly effective against MAP with no obvious adverse effects.

A Phase I trial of the vaccine in healthy human volunteers was completed by The Jenner Institute, Oxford in 2018. The study showed that the vaccine was safe and stimulated good levels of immunity against MAP. The study has been published in two parts and can be read here: 

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/7/2/40/htm 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8000717/

A second trial of the Vaccine, in patients with Crohn's disease, opened for recruitment in May 2021 at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, London. Details of the trial can be found here: http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN36126048

We would like to thank all volunteers taking part in these trials, without whom it wouldn't be possible to develop important new therapies!

An essential element of this trial is a 'companion diagnostic test' - a simple accurate test for MAP in blood and tissues which has been developed at King's College London. Historically MAP has been difficult to detect and older testing methods lacked sensitivity, making it difficult for scientists to investigate its role in Crohn's disease. The new test allows MAP to be seen in human tissues for the first time, which can tell us a lot more about how it may be causing disease. Validation studies are being carried out to demonstrate the accuracy of the new test in detecting MAP.

Fundraising Progress:

Thanks to your support, the milestones we have achieved since the beginning in Oct 2013 are:

£70,000 (Nov 8th 2014)

£120,000 (May 31st 2015)

£170,000 (Aug 31st 2015)

£470,000 (Jan 2017)

£870,000 (Sept 2020)

We are aiming to raise further funds to support the laboratory at KCL during the Vaccine trial in Crohn's patients, as well as continuing to investigate the wider role of MAP in human disease.

For full details of the funding for the new MAP test and the Vaccine, please visit our website: http://crohnsmapvaccine.com/funding-for-the-map-test-and-vaccine-explained/

If you support us, this is how your money would be spent:

Every £5000 enables the research team to pay for:

• 1 month’s salary of their senior clinical research fellow OR
• 2 month’s salary of their senior lab technician OR
• 3 months worth of reagents and laboratory consumables OR
• Open access to core scientific facilities such as super-resolution microscopy, advanced laser-capture microdissection, flow cytometry, proteomics and genomics and advanced image analysis software.

In other words, your money would go directly to the research itself. There are NO ADMINISTRATION COSTS as these are funded by the University, not the Crohn’s Fund. 

Every penny counts and no donation is too small! Help raise awareness:

• Like us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crohnsmapvaccine
• Follow us on twitter: @CrohnsVaccine
• Get involved! Join our fabulous team of Crohnie Heroes at: https://www.facebook.com/CrohnsMAPVaccineHeroes

Together we can make this happen!

Amy and the Crohn's MAP Vaccine team.