Salt-Inducible Kinases Could Stop Inflammation for Chronic Diseases

A recent study suggests that the enzyme, salt-inducible kinases, can help stop runaway inflammation associated with numerous autoimmune diseases.

According to the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, researchers were able to limit inflammatory molecules produced by certain types of human immune cells.

"Our laboratory studies further expand and validate the potential therapeutic implications of the use of salt-inducible kinase inhibitors for the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases," said researcher Maria Stella Lombardi, PhD. "The development of novel potent, selective, and drug-like inhibitors of these pathways will allow us in the near future to test them in animal models of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases."

Researchers used 2 small molecule salt-inducible kinase inhibitors or RNA interference techniques in order to confirm that salt-inducible kinase inhibition lessened pro-inflammatory cytokine production (TNF-alpha and IL-12 and 6 and IL-1beta). These were also found to increase the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 secretion by cultured human monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells.

"Inflammatory disorders are one of the largest classes of disease we see in the clinic, but these disorders are very heterogeneous in terms of clinical manifestations and underlying cause," John Wherry, PhD, deputy editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, concluded. "This work has the potential to add a new class of therapeutics for inflammatory disorders that could be used in combination with other distinct therapies in hard-to-treat autoimmunity inflammatory conditions."