Iain Uings and Murray McKinnon Pages 1837 - 1844 ( 8 )
A wealth of both clinical and pre-clinical data has strongly implicated the eosinophil in the pathogenesis of asthma, highlighting this cell type as a potential target for novel anti-inflammatory approaches to asthma therapy. The Th2 lymphocyte derived cytokine Interleukin-5 (IL-5) has emerged as the key regulator of eosinophil production, thus identifying IL-5 as the principal molecular target for therapeutic intervention. This review highlights both the pharmaceutical approaches, and the major challenges, to the identification of small molecule and protein antagonists of the IL-5 receptor. Using examples of known inhibitors we discuss their current status and highlight the major development hurdles in progressing these molecules into the market place.
receptor antagonists,granulocyte-macrophage,bronchial hyperreactivity,constrained peptides
, Department of Immunology, Inflammation and Pulmonary, Bristol-Myers Squibb, PharmaceuticalResearch Institute, PO Box 4000, Princeton, NJ, USA.