New immunosuppressive compounds suppress side effects
Immunosuppressive compounds are used clinically for patients suffering from auto-immune diseases and for those undergoing organ transplantation, with the aim to moderate the activity of the immune system so that the body does not reject the organ. Currently, in order for a person to enjoy the benefits of a replaced organ, they have to commit to a lifelong drug dependency. However, immunosuppressors tend to be non-selective and systemic in their activity and may overpower the immune system throughout the entire body. People using immunosuppressants are therefore more susceptible to infections or other opportunistic diseases and consequently less toxic drugs are needed to prevent graft rejection. T cells and their subpopulations play a major role in the defence against intracellular pathogens and are also involved in immunity to extra-cellular pathogens by providing help for the antibody response. A graft rejection is initiated by T cells recognising foreign histocompatibility antigens of the graft. A research group achieved the synthesis and biological profiling of a novel class of immunosuppressive compounds. These compounds are water-soluble cyclic hexa-peptides of very easy chemical synthesis, obtained through molecular modelling approaches. The compounds demonstrate high selectivity since they inhibit T cell activation that only depends on major histo-compatibility complex, without affecting any other T cell activation. This exquisite selectivity renders these compounds very promising in terms of less side effects. In vivo experiments on an animal model of human multiple sclerosis gave no rise to any toxic side effects at the effective doses. What is necessary now is the financial backing to allow both pre-clinical development and exploitation of these compounds with the ultimate objective of a pharmaceutically acceptable formulation.
