A recent placebo-controlled clinical trial with 131 patients which tested topical application of a synthetic TLR9 ligand (DIMS0150 applied to the inflamed mucosa at week 0 and 4) for treatment of active moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis did not show a significant difference between treatment and placebo groups for the primary endpoint clinical remission at 12 weeks after starting treatment, but a significantly higher percentage of patients showed histological improvements and reached clinical remission with mucosal healing after four weeks [107]. The gene discussed is TLR9; the disease is ulcerative colitis.