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Biotech / Medical : Cistron Biotechnology(CIST)$.30 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Walter Morton who wrote (2559)	2/15/2000 10:05:00 AM
From: Walter Morton	Respond to of 2742

The discovery of a compound which specifically inhibits the cleavage of IL-1? will also provide a therapeutic approach for diseases in which excessive or unregulated IL-1 production is implicated. Though the mature form of IL-1b has been found to be beneficial in some medical conditions, there are medical conditions where its presence is not beneficial. Accordingly where such a condition exists, it is desirable that mature IL-1b not be present, or, at least its level significantly reduced. The subject invention deals directly with this situation by providing a method for inhibiting cleavage of precursor IL-1b to mature IL-1b. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The subject invention provides materials and methods for inhibiting the production of mature IL-1b by monocytes and/or macrophages. In a specific embodiment, the method of the subject invention comprises administering to a human an effective amount of a tetracycline compound. It has been found tht tetracyline compounds, including derivatives, analogs and salts of tetracycline, inhibit the cleavage of IL-1b to its most active mature form. Upon treating a human having a condition wherein the presence of mature IL1b is not desired, with an effective amount of tetracycline, or tetracyline derivative, salt or analog, there results a decrease of mature IL-1b in said human. This decrease, which results from the action of tetracycline in inhibiting the cleavage of precursor IL-1b to mature IL-1b, provides therapeutic benefits as described herein. Medical conditions which are presently known to be adversely affected by the presence of mature IL-1b include arthritis, inflammation, periodontal disease, and degenerative bone diseases. This should not be interpreted as an exhaustive list. patents.ibm.com I didn't see any mention of test results related to this invention.