A serious Th1 promoter?

[Guest guest]

The following abstract talks about a " Th2 cytokine inhibitor " . I did not

know such things were openly available as 'conventional' drugs. Does

anyone know anything about this stuff and what it may be used for, as it

seems that it could be useful for Th1 promoting as Cheney and others suggest.

Also, perhaps one of Cheney's patients (well any of you lucky enough to go

to doctors who know what they are about re CFS) could mention this to

him/them and see if he/they has/have an opinion.

n

PS my eosinophils test high, but I don't know anything about how relevant

this is to Th1/Th2.

PS 'suplatast tosilate' would have to be the most unattractive name I have

ever heard for a therapeutic!

Suplatast Tosilate Inhibits Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Bronchial Asthma

WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Aug 01 - The Th2 cytokine inhibitor suplatast

tosilate inhibits airway eosinophilic inflammation in patients with mild

bronchial asthma, Japanese investigators report.

Dr. Takahiko Horiguchi and colleagues, from the Fujita Health University

School of Medicine in Aichi, administered oral suplatast tosilate 300

mg/day to 25 adults with bronchial asthma. Treatment lasted 4 weeks.

As reported in the Journal of Asthma for June, serum levels of eosinophil

cationic protein (ECP) and peripheral blood eosinophil counts decreased

significantly in the 13 patients with atopic bronchial asthma, although not

in the 12 with the nonatopic type.

Levels of ECP in sputum dropped significantly in both groups, as did airway

hyperresponsiveness as measured by asthography. Both groups exhibited

significant improvement in morning peak expiratory flow.

Dr. Horiguchi's team concludes that " suplatast tosilate might be useful to

prevent the aggravation of bronchial asthma in patients whose disorder is

mild...in the combination effect at step-down of inhalatory steroids, and

to inhibit the progress to remodeling of inflammatory cell origin. "

J Asthma 2001;38:331-336.