http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/therapeutic-alchemist.html Science Blog from Freelance Science Writer David Bradley Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:25:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/therapeutic-alchemist.html/comment-page-1#comment-498125 Sheryl Torr-Brown Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:25:40 +0000 http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/?p=1778#comment-498125 The piece on cytokine use for atherosclerosis interests me. It seems curious that this has not been considered before. It has long been known that inflammation is a key component of blood vessel disease, and TNF-alpha seems like a no-brainer to try. The problem is-how do you measure the effects of the compounds on athero since it takes so long to see evidence of protection from heart attacks. New imaging techniques can track plaques but data is often ambiguous since plaques are not necessarily predictors of heart attack and stroke. I think the hypothesis that cytokines play a role in all diseases is intriguing, since at some point inflammation plays a role in pretty much every pathological process. One issue to contend with could be timing of the anti-cytokine therapy. Inflammation can be a good guy in certain instance, stimulating effective healing. The temporal nature of the cytokine effects may well be key to successful applications outside the currently accepted indications. The piece on cytokine use for atherosclerosis interests me. It seems curious that this has not been considered before. It has long been known that inflammation is a key component of blood vessel disease, and TNF-alpha seems like a no-brainer to try. The problem is-how do you measure the effects of the compounds on athero since it takes so long to see evidence of protection from heart attacks. New imaging techniques can track plaques but data is often ambiguous since plaques are not necessarily predictors of heart attack and stroke.
I think the hypothesis that cytokines play a role in all diseases is intriguing, since at some point inflammation plays a role in pretty much every pathological process. One issue to contend with could be timing of the anti-cytokine therapy. Inflammation can be a good guy in certain instance, stimulating effective healing. The temporal nature of the cytokine effects may well be key to successful applications outside the currently accepted indications.

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