Small molecule approaches to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases (Part III): Targeting cytokines and cytokine receptor complexes

Abstract

Chronic and dysregulated cytokine signaling plays an important role in the pathogenic development of many autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Despite intrinsic challenges in the disruption of interactions between cytokines and cytokine receptors, many first-in-class small-molecule inhibitors have been discovered over the past few years. The third part of the digest series presents recent progress in identifying such inhibitors and highlights the application of novel research tools in the fields of structural biology, computational analysis, screening methods, biophysical/biochemical assays and medicinal chemistry strategy.

Keywords: Autoimmune and inflammatory diseases; Cytokine; Cytokine receptor; Protein-protein interaction; Small molecule.