George, thanks. This other one may also be useful:
psoriasis.org
Psoriasis is interesting in that it exists in the intersection of "traditional" dermatology and, given the involvement of T-cells (something that I think was not firmly established until relatively recently), the study of inflammatory diseases. The latter would include RA, MS, IBD, Crohn's, etc. Coming from the second direction, psoriasis is being used to "validate" approaches. This, I think, is what's happened with the Isis ICAM-1 antisense molecule (thanks, Dwight). It looks as if they are back to IND with this one in psoriasis, but the proof of concept encouraged Isis to take it much further in Crohn's.
Incidentally, LFA-1 (or CD18/CD11a) is the target of the GNE/XOMA antibody, and it (LFA-1) binds to ICAM-1. In some, very general, sense, these two molecules are conceptually closer to one another than one may think, because they both interfere with the LFA-1/ICAM-1 recognition event. Each one may do other things on its own, of course.
Going back to the updated list of DAK, it would be interesting to figure out which of those molecules have reasonable shots at the more severe indications in inflammation.
PB |
