From the ashes of a failed pain drug, a new therapeutic path emerges

(Boston Children's Hospital) A surprising discovery about a failed pain drug -- and specifically, the pathway it targets, BH4 -- could have implications for autoimmunity and cancer. Neuroscientists at Boston Children's Hospital and immunologists from IMBA in Vienna report that BH4 also functions as a kind of immunological thermostat, raising and lowering the activity levels of T cells. Inhibiting BH4 could relieve atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, lupus, polyarthritis and inflammatory bowel disease; boosting it could help the immune system attack cancers.
Source: EurekAlert! - Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: news