Averting inflammation by targeting the cytokine environment

Cytokines are key instigators and regulators of immune
responses and therefore hold great potential as targets for new
therapeutic strategies. However, the selection of which
cytokines to target, and in particular the identification of which
cytokines regulate the rate-limiting steps of disease pathways, is
crucial to the success of such strategies. Moreover, balancing
the need for ablating pathological inflammatory responses and
simultaneously maintaining the ability to control infectious
agents is a key consideration. Recent advances in our
understanding of cytokine networks, as well as technical
progress in blocking cytokines in vivo, are likely to be a source
for new drugs that can control chronic inflammatory diseases.




Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 9, 703-718 (September 2010) |
doi:10.1038/nrd2805