New Pharmaceutical Targets to Counteract Chronic Inflammation

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Drug Targeting and Design".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2024) | Viewed by 2075

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Napoli Federico II, Via Cintia, 80126 Naples, Italy
Interests: organic synthesis; biomimetic agents; uPA-uPAR system; chronic inflammation; retinal diseases

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Napoli Federico II, Via Cintia, 80126 Naples, Italy
Interests: bioinorganic chemistry; artificial metalloenzymes; bioactive peptides; angiogenesis; chronic inflammation; uPA-uPAR system

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Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, via Cintia, 80126 Naples, Italy
Interests: biomimetic agents; artificial metalloenzymes; organic synthesis; drug discovery; angiogenesis; chronic inflammation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
1. Department of Nephrology, Dialysis, and Renal Transplantation, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 20122 Milan, Italy
2. Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy
Interests: chronic kidney disease (CKD); chronic inflammation; glomerulonephritis; kidney transplantation; acute kidney disease (AKI)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Inflammation is a protective response of organisms to harmful stimuli including pathogens, damaged cells, and toxic compounds. While finely regulated in a healthy organism, uncontrolled inflammation may become chronic, contributing to the onset of a large number of pathological conditions, spanning from cancer to autoimmune disorders, from diabetes-related complications to infections, from kidney to ocular diseases, and to a variety of age-related degenerative conditions. For many of these pathologies, therapeutic intervention is frequently absent or inadequate. Over the last years, molecular understanding of the mechanisms and signalling pathways leading to chronic inflammation has enabled the identification of new, general and effective pharmaceutic targets (proteolytic enzymes, Toll-like receptors, inflammatory factors, growth factors, and inflammatory metabolites) to be exploited for innovative treatments of inflammatory diseases.

The goal of this Special Issue is to highlight and collate scientific publications and reviews on interesting pharmaceutical studies (regarding the identification of new pharmaceutical targets, innovative pharmaceutic treatments and formulations, and insights into the mechanisms of therapeutic drugs in chronic inflammatory diseases) that aim to tackle and cure diseases characterized by chronic inflammation.

Dr. Maria De Fenza
Prof. Vincenzo Pavone
Dr. Daniele D'Alonzo
Dr. Giuseppe Castellano
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • dysregulated chemotaxis
  • chronic inflammation
  • ocular diseases
  • focal segmental glomerulosclerosis
  • acute kidney disease
  • new pharmaceutical targets
  • innovative pharmaceutic treatments and formulations

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 1154 KiB  
Article
The Role of a Cholecystokinin Receptor Antagonist in the Management of Chronic Pancreatitis: A Phase 1 Trial
by Victor Ciofoaia, Wenqiang Chen, Bakain W. Tarek, Martha Gay, Narayan Shivapurkar and Jill P. Smith
Pharmaceutics 2024, 16(5), 611; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics16050611 - 30 Apr 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1741
Abstract
Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a rare but debilitating condition with an 8-fold increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. In addition to the symptoms that come from the loss of endocrine and exocrine function in CP, the management of chronic pain is problematic. We [...] Read more.
Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a rare but debilitating condition with an 8-fold increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. In addition to the symptoms that come from the loss of endocrine and exocrine function in CP, the management of chronic pain is problematic. We previously showed that the CCK-receptor antagonist called proglumide could decrease inflammation, acinar-ductal metaplasia, and fibrosis in murine models of CP. We hypothesized that proglumide would be safe and diminish pain caused by CP. A Phase 1 open-labeled safety study was performed in subjects with clinical and radiographic evidence of CP with moderate to severe pain. After a 4-week observation period, the subjects were treated with proglumide in 400 mg capsules three times daily (1200 mg per day) by mouth for 12 weeks, and then subjects returned for a safety visit 4 weeks after the discontinuation of the study medication. The results of three pain surveys (Numeric Rating Scale, COMPAT-SF, and NIH PROMIS) showed that the patients had significantly less pain after 12 weeks of proglumide compared to the pre-treatment observation phase. Of the eight subjects in this study, two experienced nausea and diarrhea with proglumide. These side effects resolved in one subject with doses reduced to 800 mg per day. No abnormalities were noted in the blood chemistries. A blood microRNA blood biomarker panel that corresponded to pancreatic inflammation and fibrosis showed significant improvement. We conclude that proglumide is safe and well tolerated in most subjects with CP at a dose of 1200 mg per day. Furthermore, proglumide therapy may have a beneficial effect by decreasing pain associated with CP. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Pharmaceutical Targets to Counteract Chronic Inflammation)
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