A NOVEL ANTIALLERGIC DRUG EPINASTINE INHIBITS IL-8 RELEASE FROM HUMANEOSINOPHILS

Eosinophils are believed to be one of the important sources of cytokin es at the site of allergic inflammation. A novel antiallergic agent ep inastine showed a dose- and time-dependent suppressive effect on IL-8, one of the chemokines for eosinophils, released from eosinophils isol ated from atopic diseases. The time-dependent accumulation of IL-8 inh ibited by cycloheximide and the evaluation of the IL-8 mRNA levels by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction suggested that its act ion occurred in the posttranscripitional processes. It was suggested t hat epinastine might prevent the autocrine cycle for recruitment of hu man eosinophils by inhibiting IL-8 release from these cells. (C) 1997 Academic Press