152 153 Intestinal Disease Meeting Berlin 2006 - Dr. Falk Pharma ...

Session 6
48
K. Fellermann D.W. Hommes B.G. Feagan
ed by cyclosporine A but there are many different
agents that have the same effect. Examples include
tacrolimus and TOR inhibitors (target of
rapamycin), such as everolimus and sirolimus.
In this area, too, there is a future potential for
development of new therapy options.
This holds also for T-cell modulating antibodies,
a class to which infliximab belongs. According to
D.C. Baumgart (Berlin), further substances with
a similar mechanism of action are appearing on
the market, such as adalimumab, already used
in rheumatology, and the humanized CD3-antibody,
visilizumab.
Modulation of cytokines may also open new
therapeutic vistas, said D.W. Hommes (Amster-
dam). “Cytokines are linked to one another in a
complex network and control a wide variety of
processes in the organism,” D.W. Hommes said
(figure 35). The problem is finding a way to put
this complex feedback system to therapeutic
use. “We have already seen so many cytokines
come and go on which we had placed serious
therapeutic hopes,” D.W. Hommes said.
A completely different concept could involve
prevention of leukocyte migration into inflamed
tissue. This would, however, said B.G. Feagan
(London/Ontario), require blocking cell adhesion.
Current research is also focusing on such strategies,
such as inhibition of the adhesion molecule
VCAM-1.