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Immune-mediated inflammatory disease therapeutics: past, present and future

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 21, pages 680–686 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases are common and clinically diverse. Although they are currently incurable, the therapeutic armamentarium for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases has been transformed in the past two decades. We have moved from the wide application of broad-spectrum immune modulators to the routine use of agents with exquisite specificity, arising from monoclonal and molecular biotechnology and more recently from highly targeted medicinal chemistry. Here we describe key advances and lessons that drove this remarkable progress and thereafter reflect on the next steps in this ongoing journey.

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Fig. 1: Timeline of therapeutic strategies for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
Fig. 2: Key targets for the management of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
Fig. 3: Future approaches for immune-mediated inflammatory disease therapeutics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Iain B. McInnes

  2. Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation, and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Ellen M. Gravallese

  3. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Ellen M. Gravallese

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  1. Iain B. McInnes
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  2. Ellen M. Gravallese
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The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

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Correspondence to Iain B. McInnes.

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Competing interests

E.M.G. receives salary support from New England Journal of Medicine, royalties from UptoDate and the textbook Rheumatology and grant support from the US National Institutes of Health. I.B.M. has received honoraria and/or research funding from AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer, Cabaletta Bio, Causeway Therapeutics, Compugen, Eli Lilly, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi and UCB.

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Nature Reviews Immunology thanks D. Rao, V. Strand and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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McInnes, I.B., Gravallese, E.M. Immune-mediated inflammatory disease therapeutics: past, present and future. Nat Rev Immunol 21, 680–686 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-021-00603-1

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