Treatment of inflammatory diseases

Abstract

The invention described herein relates to methods of screening for pro-inflammatory genes and anti-inflammatory genes which may be useful for treating an inflammatory disease, disorder, or otherwise abnormal condition, such as an inflammatory lung disease. The identified pro-inflammatory genes and anti-inflammatory genes may be used to produce pharmaceutical compositions for use in treating the inflammatory disease, disorder, or otherwise abnormal condition.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This Application is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 14 / 853,192 filed on Sep. 14, 2015 which is a continuation application of International Application No. PCT / US2014 / 025776, filed on Mar. 13, 2014, which claims the benefit of the filing date, under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), of U.S. Provisional Application Nos. 61 / 793,110 and 61 / 788,602, both filed on Mar. 15, 2013, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Humans breath more than one cubic meter of air every hour, and the large quantities of particles, antigens, infectious agents and toxic gases and fumes that are present in inhaled air are usually dealt with by the lung. The interaction of these particles with the immune system and other lung defense mechanisms results in the generation of a controlled inflammatory response which is usually protective and beneficial. In general, this process regulates itself in order to preserve th...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method for identifying target genes that may be useful for treating inflammatory diseases. The method involves contacting test cells with a pro-inflammatory cytokine and monitoring the expression level of genes that show a change in expression compared to control cells. The genes that show a change in expression level are considered target genes that may be useful for treating the inflammatory disease. The method can be performed using a single epithelial stem cell or differentiated cells from a patient with the inflammatory disease. The expression level of the target gene can be determined by quantitating mRNA expression or by other methods such as microarray or real-time PCR. The patent also provides a method for identifying anti-inflammatory genes that can alleviate the inflammatory phenotype induced by the pro-inflammatory cytokine. The method can be performed using a second population of test cells. Overall, the patent provides a method for identifying target genes that may be useful for developing new treatments for inflammatory diseases.

Problems solved by technology

In some cases, however, the inflammatory response cannot be regulated and the potential for tissue injury is increased.

Depending on the type of environmental exposure, genetic predisposition, and a variety of ill-defined factors, abnormally large numbers of inflammatory cells can be recruited at different sites of the respiratory system, resulting in illness or disease.

Despite advances in the treatment of inflammatory illnesses, including pulmonary inflammatory diseases, treatment using available drugs or agents frequently results in undesirable side effects.

Similarly, while corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive medications have been routinely employed to treat pulmonary fibrosis, they have demonstrated only marginal efficacy.

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