The charakteristics and advantages of our invention are illustrated by the following description, methods and results of our research, attached figures and supporting references

摘要

he invention relates to the use of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)receptor-1 (R1) antagonists and/or CRH-R2 receptor agonists for the treatment of imflammatory diseases via regulation of monocyte/macrophage cell activation, proliferation, differentation, apoptosis, and inflammatory cytokine production. As CRH system we define natural and syntheticCRH and urocortin (UCN) agonists and antagonistsfor the CRH-R1 and CRH-R2 receptors and their sybtypes as well as the CRH-binding protein (BP),a CRH pseudo-receptor. The invention is directed towards pharmacological intervention for the amelioration or treatment of inflammatory diseases using the CRH system-mediated control of monocyte / macrophage cells which play a key role in initiatingand maintaining the inflammatory response via production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as is the interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. By the term inflammation we define the response of an organism to noxius endogenousor exogenous stimuli causing tissue injury. Inflammation is a host defence mechanism, which might harm the defending organism. The invention also provides methods for the in vitro and in vivo evaluation of natural and synthetic CRH system modulatorsfor the control of the monocyte/macrophage system.