Unfulfilled inflammatory resolution leads to chronic inflammatory diseases

Extract: Inflammatory conditions, particularly those that involve chronic inflammation, represent an area of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry. Regulated as they are by a diverse array of ligand-receptor interactions, inflammatory responses are amenable to small molecule pharmaceutical intervention and a wide variety of anti-histamines and anti-inflammatory treatments. Both steroidal and non-steroidal treatments have been developed to treat pro-inflammatory conditions. In their review, Gilroy et al. (2004) present the case for developing novel anti-inflammatory drugs not by finding more effective inhibitors of the inflammatory response, but by developing small molecule drugs that positively regulate the processes and mechanisms by which inflammatory responses are attenuated (i.e., the little known process of inflammatory resolution).