Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals Inc. (fka RCPIQ)

[seek the light]

http://www.nature.com/aps/journal/v30/n6/full/aps200937a.html

Excerpt:


In addition, selective nicotinic

ligands that affect the pro-inflammatory pathway from

the transcriptional level upward provide a new therapeutic

class possessing a potentially better mechanism of action

for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.

These ligands achieve this by modulating a broad array

of cytokines and cellular pathways that are involved in cell

homeostasis, an effect that would not be possible by targeting

individual proteins. The mechanistic overlap between

the signaling pathways involved in neuroprotective mechanisms

and in controlling inflammation may provide the tools

needed to control and break the vicious cycle of cell death

and inflammation. The aptly named Janus kinase, the deity

of gateways, beginnings, and endings in roman mythology,

resides at the crossroad of these bimodal signaling cascades

and may provide a convenient target via NNR modulation

for novel therapies designed to manage the disruption of regulatory

proteins that are central to cellular homeostasis. The

present therapeutic armamentarium is lacking drugs directed

toward some of the fundamental pathways involved in cell

survival and chronic inflammation that have been increasingly

implicated in some of the most devastating diseases,

including atherosclerosis, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases,

chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, inflammatory

bowel diseases, and other untractable diseases. The potential

to target neuronal survival and chronic inflammation could

be a turning point in our ability to manage some of the most

costly public health issues of our time. Although there is

mounting evidence for the potential of NNRs to target the hallmark

of diseases that may constitute the biggest public health

challenges, the regulatory path for such therapies remains to be

established and only global pharmaceutical companies with a

strategic interest in these areas have the means to undertake

the task of extended clinical trials and to influence the

regulatory bodies to pave the way for such new therapies.