In a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, scientists have discovered a small molecule capable of blocking an important driver for inflammatory diseases. The finding could pave the way for new treatments for multiple sclerosis, arthritis and even a family of rare autoinflammatory diseases.
Called MCC950, the molecule works by suppressing the activation of inflammation as triggered by inflammasomes. It blocks an inflammasome known as NLRP3, a key component in the immune response responsible for "switching on" inflammation in immune system cells.
By targeting inflammasomes, researchers are hopeful that better treatment options for inflammatory diseases will be developed.
Dr. Rebecca Coll from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland explained that inflammatory diseases are caused by the immune system's inability to switch off, leading to repeated inflammation in the body. Current treatment methods have room for improvement because they don't offer targeted therapy and are not effective in extreme cases, limiting how safe and effective they can be.
The molecule MCC950 has several advantages as a treatment option. For starters, it may be administered orally, making it cheaper to produce compared to current treatments based on proteins that have to be given by injection daily, weekly or monthly.
Because it will be cheaper to produce, it will be more affordable as well for patients. MCC950 is also metabolized quicker so it stays for a shorter period in the body, allowing doctors to cease anti-inflammatory action when a patient needs their immune system working 100 percent to clear infections.
Researchers have also confirmed that a number of inflammatory diseases work in the same way, discounting which part of the body is affected.
"What we have found is a potentially transformative medicine that targets what appears to be the common disease-causing process in many inflammatory diseases," said Luke O'Neill from Trinity College Dublin and one of the authors of the study. The researchers are excited about the molecule because they believe it has very real potential in easing the suffering of patients living with debilitating diseases.
Researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Universities of Bonn, Massachusetts and Michigan and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute also participated in the study.
Aside from Coll and O'Neill, other authors include Avril Robertson, Matthew Cooper, Jae Jin Chae, Kate Schroder, Sarah Higgins, Seth Masters, Raúl Muñoz-Planillo, Kingston Mills, Marco Inserra, Daniel Kastner, Irina Vetter, Eicke Latz, Lara Dungan, Gabriel Núñez, Brian Monks, Caroline Sutton, Andrea Stutz, Moritz Haneklaus, Daniel Croker and Mark Butler.
