PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE AGENTS”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 379 records · Page 21Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

The effects of immunosuppressive agents on cytokines.

Controlled clinical trials have shown that several immunosuppressive drugs are efficacious in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. These drugs each have multiple effects on the immune system and the exact mechanism of their beneficial effect in inflammatory bowel disease is unknown. None of these agents directly inhibits the 'inflammatory cytokines' such as IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-8, or TNF-alpha. However, they can all inhibit generation of leukocyte precursors in the bone marrow, that is, the cells that produce such cytokines. The effects of current agents on T-cell subsets and their associated cytokines remains unclear. Based on insights from novel mouse models of chronic colitis, the goal of 'immunotherapy' going into the next decade should be either to inhibit specifically the effector T cells mediating disease or to enhance the regulatory T cells that inhibit such effector cells or, ideally, to do both. Therapy meeting this goal, which will need to based on a more thorough understanding of the immunopathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease, should allow a more specific or 'surgical' approach to immunotherapy and simultaneously reduce its risks and adverse effects.

Animals↗