title: Finding a place for interleukin-1 inhibitors in the treatment of rheumatologic diseases.
abstract: Interleukin-1 inhibitors were tested in large arthritis trials with less than impressive results, despite having convincing disease expression data and pre-clinical animal model supporting the potential pathogenic role of this cytokine in these settings. Despite disappointing beginnings, some IL-1 pathway blocking drugs are now beginning to find a place in the pharmacopoeia of rheumatologists. Drug developers utilised rapidly growing understanding of the molecular pathway and the genetic basis of key diseases to seek out conditions in which IL-1 pathway activation was much more likely to have a pivotal role in disease pathogenesis compared to the major arthritides. This review details the crucial advances in understanding of the IL-1 pathway activation which enabled this progress, particularly the advent of inflammasome biology. The drug development of IL-1 biologics in rheumatological diseases makes a fascinating case study illustrating major changes in drug development strategy encompassing closer synergies between translational biology, underlying molecular pathophysiology of disease, and novel clinical development pathways of biologic therapeutics.
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Finch
authors.affiliation: Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmunity, MedImmune, Granta Park, Cambridge, UK CB21 6GH. finchd@medimmune.com.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sleeman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007375:Interleukin-1 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D007375:Interleukin-1