Testing the Role of Anti-fungal Therapy in Improving the Response to Therapies for Crohn's Disease

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the effects of fluconazole in patients who plan to start or are currently undergoing standard of care treatment and plan to dose-escalate an IL-23 therapy for their Crohn's disease. The main question it aims to assess is whether or not patient response to IL-23 therapies improve when simultaneously treated with fluconazole.

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy and safety of fluconazole in combination with IL-23 therapy versus IL-23 therapy alone for the treatment of Crohn's disease (CD). IL-23 therapy may include ustekinumab (anti-interleukin-12/23), risankizumab (anti-interleukin-23), or guselkumab (anti-interleukin-23). Subjects will be stratified into two groups based on standard of care treatment: IL-23 therapy initiation or IL-23 therapy dose escalation. Subjects in each group will then be randomized to one of two treatment arms: 1. IL-23 Therapy with Fluconazole (200 mg on Day 0 and 100 mg on Days 1-13) 2. IL-23 Therapy with Placebo (200 mg on Day 0 and 100 mg on Days 1-13) Subjects will blindly receive the fluconazole treatment only if they meet all inclusion and exclusion criteria. Subjects will return for standard of care clinic visits 2 weeks post-treatment initiation and 12 weeks post-treatment initiation. Disease activity will be assessed at standard of care visits. Stool, blood, and oral swab samples will collected for research from subjects at Day 0 (pre-treatment initiation), Week 2 post-treatment initiation, Week 8 post-treatment initiation, and Week 12 post-treatment initiation. If subjects consent to biopsies, biopsies will also be collected for research at endoscopic procedures (colonoscopies and/or flexible sigmoidoscopies). Subjects will return at Week 24 and 1 year post-treatment initiation for standard of care visits, where blood, stool, and oral swabs will also be collected for research.