New Cytokines as Potential Drugs

Over the past ten years, a number of cytokines and growth factors have proven to be as effective therapeutics. While these products have certainly established recombinant biologics as a major pharmaceutical growth sector, the continued interest in this class of drugs arises from the fact that today we have a far better understanding of the human immune response, both at a cellular and molecular level. This has resulted in a more methodical characterisation of these factors which has given clinical researchers an opportunity to plan Phase 1 clinical trials that can provide substantial information on the activity of the cytokine in humans. Currently, a great deal of effort is also being channelled into identifying cytokines from the various DNA databases. Our major objective for this book is to profile cytokines that have been recently identified. The therapeutic potential of these cytokines based on their known properties will be discussed by the authors. The main aim of this book is to provide...