British researchers say they have discovered powerful new anti-inflammatory chemicals that could form the basis of a range of new treatments.
The molecules could potentially be used as part of treatments for cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and other disease, the researchers say.
That is because the boron-based inhibitors target the inflammasome inflammatory response, they report in Cell Chemical Biology.
The researchers at Manchester University say the molecule is more “potent” than mefenamic acid, which they had reported on last year.
Researcher Dr Sally Freeman said: “It’s a tremendous starting point for a new generation of molecules which can be developed to target inflammatory disease in the clinic.”
Fellow researcher Dr David Brough said: “The discovery of these new compounds is really exciting and will allow us to further understand inflammation and disease.
“Our new molecules specifically hit an important inflammatory mechanism that occurs in disease.”
Baldwin et al. Boron-Based Inhibitors of the NLRP3 Inflammasome Cell Chemical Biology 21 September 2017; doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2017.08.011 [abstract]
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