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Public release date: 9-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Kathleen Poe Ross
404-413-1374
Georgia State University
ATLANTA A potential new strategy to developing new drugs to control inflammation without serious side effects has been found by Georgia State University researchers and international colleagues.
Jian-Dong Li, director of Georgia State's Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection, and his team discovered that blocking a certain pathway involved in the biological process of inflammation will suppress it.
Inhibiting a molecule called phosphodiesterase 4B, or PDE4B, suppresses inflammation by affecting a key gene called CLYD, a gene that serves as a brake on inflammation.
The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Li explained the process of overactive inflammation using a "police" analogy.
When a pathogen such as bacteria or viruses -- infects a patient, he said, it triggers an "alarm" to which the "police" of immune system respond. In turn, it triggers neutrophil attractant called cytokines to respond, leading to inflammation that serves to help rid the body of the pathogen. But if inflammation isn't stopped, tissue damage can result.
The pathways during the response are termed "positive," like a gas pedal on a car, and "negative," like a brake, with the process in the positive pathway going down the line from the pathogen to inflammation, and negative going the other direction. PDE4B is involved in controlling the negative pathway.
Many researchers have been focusing on developing anti-inflammatory agents by stopping the positive pathway, but the discovery by Li and his colleagues gives scientists a new route to stop inflammation using safer or even existing drugs proven to be non-toxic as they have found that accelerating the negative pathway will reduce inflammation.
"This is the key negative regulator that we have been searching after for years, " Li said.
There is a need for better drugs to control inflammation, because current treatments come with serious side effects, Li said. Steroids are commonly used, but cannot be used over the long-term. Steroids suppress the immune system.
###
The research team included Kensei Komatsu, Ji-Yun Lee, Masanori Miyata, Jae Hyang Lim, Hirofumi Jono, Tomoaki Koga, Haidong Xu, Chen Yan, Hirofumi Kai and Jian-Dong Li.
It was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, grant numbers DC005843 and DC 004562. Abstracts are available at http://projectreporter.nih.gov.
The article is "Inhibition of PDE4B suppresses inflammation by increasing expression of the deubiquitinase CLYD," in Nature Communications, available at http://hx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6274 or from Public Relations and Marketing Communications at 404-413-1374 or kpoeross@gsu.edu.
For more about Georgia State's Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection, visit http://inflammation.gsu.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 9-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Kathleen Poe Ross
404-413-1374
Georgia State University
ATLANTA A potential new strategy to developing new drugs to control inflammation without serious side effects has been found by Georgia State University researchers and international colleagues.
Jian-Dong Li, director of Georgia State's Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection, and his team discovered that blocking a certain pathway involved in the biological process of inflammation will suppress it.
Inhibiting a molecule called phosphodiesterase 4B, or PDE4B, suppresses inflammation by affecting a key gene called CLYD, a gene that serves as a brake on inflammation.
The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Li explained the process of overactive inflammation using a "police" analogy.
When a pathogen such as bacteria or viruses -- infects a patient, he said, it triggers an "alarm" to which the "police" of immune system respond. In turn, it triggers neutrophil attractant called cytokines to respond, leading to inflammation that serves to help rid the body of the pathogen. But if inflammation isn't stopped, tissue damage can result.
The pathways during the response are termed "positive," like a gas pedal on a car, and "negative," like a brake, with the process in the positive pathway going down the line from the pathogen to inflammation, and negative going the other direction. PDE4B is involved in controlling the negative pathway.
Many researchers have been focusing on developing anti-inflammatory agents by stopping the positive pathway, but the discovery by Li and his colleagues gives scientists a new route to stop inflammation using safer or even existing drugs proven to be non-toxic as they have found that accelerating the negative pathway will reduce inflammation.
"This is the key negative regulator that we have been searching after for years, " Li said.
There is a need for better drugs to control inflammation, because current treatments come with serious side effects, Li said. Steroids are commonly used, but cannot be used over the long-term. Steroids suppress the immune system.
###
The research team included Kensei Komatsu, Ji-Yun Lee, Masanori Miyata, Jae Hyang Lim, Hirofumi Jono, Tomoaki Koga, Haidong Xu, Chen Yan, Hirofumi Kai and Jian-Dong Li.
It was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, grant numbers DC005843 and DC 004562. Abstracts are available at http://projectreporter.nih.gov.
The article is "Inhibition of PDE4B suppresses inflammation by increasing expression of the deubiquitinase CLYD," in Nature Communications, available at http://hx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6274 or from Public Relations and Marketing Communications at 404-413-1374 or kpoeross@gsu.edu.
For more about Georgia State's Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection, visit http://inflammation.gsu.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/gsu-kpt040913.php
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Today, Microsoft has leveled more accusations about Google’s practices by way of its “Scroogled” campaigns. This time, the complaints are about how Google handles users’ data when they purchase an application from Google Play. Previous “Scroogled” campaigns have targeted both Gmail and search over ads and privacy. In the two videos below, Microsoft uses animations and words to walk you through “what might happen” if your data were to end up in the wrong people’s hands. It’s a fear campaign, and it really doesn’t have any basis whatsoever. Take a look at the videos and we’ll get into what actually happens when you buy an app from Google Play. In the second video, a “real life” situation is played out on the front steps of an apartment building: A Google spokesperson provided us with the following statement: Google Wallet shares the information needed to process transactions and maintain accounts, and this is clearly stated in the Google Wallet Privacy Notice. Why the mention of Google Wallet? The main difference between Google Play and the Apple App Store is that Google uses its “Wallet” service to process transactions. While it’s not a third-party service in the sense that it’s a different company, it is a function of the process that is not embedded into the Google Play experience. It’s something that users are made aware of in the terms of service and privacy policies when they sign up. More importantly, when merchants and developers sign up to sell things in Google Play, they must buy into not sharing any of the information that they get, which is name, email address and general location — the things that all companies selling things online need in order to process your transaction and provide support. Better start your attack against Amazon, Etsy and everyone else on the Internet, Microsoft. The timing is interesting on this, because this is the way that Google Play has always worked. Its privacy policies haven’t changed since last July, in fact. At the end of the video, if you got that far, you’ll notice that Microsoft ends things with a big “Windows Phone doesn’t do it this way.” Instead of doing an advertisement on how great Windows phones and apps are, Microsoft has decided to go after how “horrible” Google is. The “Scroogled” site even has a big old link to explore Windows Phones. Isn’t that convenient? If Microsoft