Immunopharmacology: anti-inflammatory therapy targeting transcription factors

Immunopharmacology is one of the most dynamic areas in pharmacology encompa ssing classical immunosuppressive drugs which reveal completely new clues c oncerning their mode of action as well as novel molecular biology approache s for treating inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, infections and cancer. This article focuses on transcription factors that regulate cell activitie s involved in immune and inflammatory cell responses and how traditional an ti-inflammatory compounds such as glucocorticoids, cyclosporins, tacrolismu s and salicylates interfere with the activation cascades triggering the tra nscription factors. Moreover, promising new initiatives for selective thera peutics including recombinant anti-inflammatory cytokines and proinflammato ry cytokine antagonists, and gene therapy will be presented. (C) 1999 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.