Targeting the Il-17 Pathway in Inflammatory Disorders

This book provides an overview of the discovery and structure of IL-17, including its pathogenesis and role in chronic inflammation and autoimmunity. To capture the latest developments and product approvals the book also discusses the therapeutic advances and looks at emerging therapies targeting IL-17. IL-17 is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that has a key role in inflammation, autoimmunity, and host defense in a number of inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic sclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematous. The discovery of the IL-17-Th17 pathway has seen exciting development in the field of immunology and inflammation research, which has led to a number of recent regulatory approvals.

Dr Cong-Qiu Chu is Director of the OHSU Early Arthritis Clinic in Portland, Oregan, USA. He works on strategies to induce and maintain remission in early rheumatoid arthritis in clinical studies as well as seeing patients with inflammatory arthritis at the early stage to make early diagnosis and start appropriate treatment timely. Dr. Chu’s clinical interests include arthritis, spondylitis, lupus and autoinflammatory diseases. Dr. Chu has a longstanding research interest in mechanisms of rheumatoid arthritis, cytokines and developing novel therapies for rheumatoid arthritis. His early research on tumor necrosis factor helped with development of highly effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and his contributions include the seminal finding that identified tumor necrosis factor as a target for rheumatoid arthritis therapy. Dr Chu is keenly interested in gaining insights into the pathogenesis and management of rheumatoid arthritis also. Dr Chu's research on the role of T cells in arthritis and other autoimmune diseases helped to identify Th17 rather than Th1 cells as pathogenic T cells in arthritis models of rheumatoid arthritis. His current research is focused on using small interfering RNA to target IL-17 in Th17 cells for therapy in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune inflammatory diseases. In his spare time, Dr Chu enjoys spending time with his family including his wife and two twin boys and in sport activities including skiing.