Ebiomedicine: New research helps treat inflammation

NOVEMBER 19, 2020 // -- In a recent study, a team of researchers from WEHI found a new compound that blocks key inflammatory pathways, potentially paving the way for new treatments for a variety of diseases, including COVID-19.
, an associate professor at WEHI, and his team found that the compound could block the rise of cd14, a key inflammatory protein.
findings were recently published in the journal EBioMedicine.
(Photo: www.pixabay.com) inflammation is the body's natural response to infection.
Seth Masters said: "Initially, inflammatory responses can help us fight infection, but excessive inflammation is accompanied by a range of chronic and acute diseases.
" In diseases such as COVID-19, some patients have excessive inflammation (called cytokine storms), which can lead to hospitalization or death.
blocking the CD14 pathway can reduce the severity of many diseases and may save lives.
team focused their research on a protein called CD14, which is present on the surface of macrophages.
" CD14 is designed to detect infections and help promote inflammation to remove pathogens.
but we know that as inflammation progresses, the number of CD14s on macrophages increases and may get out of control, which can lead to the exacerbation of infections or other diseases.
team used CRISPR technology to screen for genes that promote elevated CD14 levels.
we have found many very important and vital genes.
when we turn off these genes, they prevent an excessive inflammatory response driven by CD14.
drug-like inhibitors can block proteins produced by one of these genes.
found that the compound blocks the rise of CD14, effectively reducing inflammation.
Masters said the discovery of potential anti-inflammatory compounds opens the door to new anti-inflammatory treatments.
if the compound is developed as a safe and effective drug, it may help treat many inflammatory diseases," he said.
next step in this study will be to see if the drug candidate works for specific diseases in preclinical trials.
is very promising to turn this research into an effective treatment for inflammatory diseases.
" () Source: Potential new target to combating incy diseases Source: Gisela Jimenez-Duran et al. Pharmacological validation of targets regulatoring CD14 when macrophage, EBioMedicine (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.103039