微生物および生化学技術ジャーナル

概要

Need To Study On a New Nontoxic Material to Relieve Cytokine Storm Caused By Viral Pandemics

Wansu Park

The immune function is regarded to be core for protecting the host from the invasion of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasitic protozoa. Inflammation is one of major processes concerned with the immune function. But inflammation has double-sided character. Proinflammatory mediators of the uncontrolled inflammation can induce a pathologic process involved in the acute or chronic inflammation. Thus, Regulation of inflammation is becoming important more and more. Recently, Ebola and other viral diseases have been reported to cause cytokine storms (the massive overproduction of cytokines by the body's immune system), which are responsible for many of the deaths with viral pandemics. Because some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g., indomethacin) show the toxicity, it is desirable to study on a new non-toxic material that can modulate the excessive increase of proinflammatory mediators (including nitric oxide, cytokine, and intracellular calcium) and consequently relieve the cytokine storm caused by viral pandemics.