Abstract
Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract of unknown origin. Therapies include immune modulating agents, biological therapies, and surgery. The activity and efficacy of the anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapies infliximab and etanercept have proved to be different: infliximab is effective to induce and maintain remission in refractory CD, while etanercept is not. This brief review considers the question of whether this disparity can be explained by the different structure of the proteins, their different binding affinities, or the subsequent effects on T lymphocytes.
