Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 9, Issue 14, 2003

The treatment approach to rheumatoid arthritis has undergone a major evolutionary change in recent years in part as a consequence of growing appreciation of the severity of this condition and in part due to very considerable progress in understanding the important role of cytokines in the immunopathogenesis of this disease. The major focus of this review is on the rationale for targeting TNFα and IL-1 in rheumatoid arthriti Read More

Although the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remains elusive, it appears that there is chronic activation of the immune and inflammatory cascade in genetically susceptible individuals. Current disease management guidelines have therefore focused on the use of anti-inflammatory agents, aminosalicylates and corticosteroids. These conventional therapies continue to be a first choice in the manageme Read More

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor is a potent stimulator for neutrophils in the circulation as well as those progenitors to be increased and be grown in the bone marrow. Recombinant forms of this colony-stimulating factor, therefore, are widely using in the various kinds of clinical fields such as for the treatment of bone marrow suppression after cancer chemotherapy and for the treatment of myelodysplastic disorders. Read More

Many cytokines have been reported to be increased in human and animal models with cardiovascular diseases. Myocardial infarction (MI) is accompanied with an inflammatory reaction which induces cardiac dysfunction and remodeling. The inflammatory reaction has been investigated in animal models of MI or myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. The mechanisms by which cytokine cascade is activated in the infarct Read More

Since recombinant gene technology was established to provide rare important regulatory proteins as recombinant molecules, cytokine therapies have widely developed and enormously contributed to the treatment of various diseases, nevertheless, it has been revealed that recombinant therapeutic molecules are not always perfect because of sideeffects related to pharmacological functions of cytokines and / or potential Read More

Identification of CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell defined tumor antigens has opened the way for possible cancer immunotherapy. Peptide-based active immunization has begun mainly targeting melanoma. Surprisingly, some objective responses were obtained in the initial trials, leading to the accumulation of an explosive number of such antigens. Serological screening of cDNA expression libraries accelerated the identification Read More

Clara cell 10-kDa protein (CC10) / uteroglobin (UG) is a nonglycoprotein with a molecular mass of 16 kilodaltons, which is produced by mucosal epithelial cells in the lung (Clara cells), uterus and prostate. Like other low molecular weigh proteins it is catabolized in renal proximal tubules. Structurally it is a homodimer of subunits of 70 amino acids covalently bound in an antiparallel manner. It belongs to secretogobin (SCG Read More