Small molecules with anti-inflammatory properties in clinical development.

Inflammation is a crucial physiological response of our body to any kind of noxa be it an infection or tissue injury. However, this physiological process can be detrimental if dysregulated, and when the acute inflammatory response fails to resolve the cause of inflammation, there can be a switch to chronification. According to ICD 10 (WHO) over 3.000 diseases exist with the suffix “–itis” which terms an inflammatory disease. For the treatment of inflammation, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the most widespread drugs while glucocorticoids are among our strongest weapons against inflammation, making them emergency treatments for acute episodes of chronic inflammation. For the treatment of many inflammatory disorders, both are not satisfying. Consequently, industrial and academic research on anti-inflammatory drugs is very intensive. In this review, we evaluate current treatments and unmet needs of chronic inflammatory diseases with high prevalence (rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis), and systematically review small molecules with anti-inflammatory properties presently in clinical trials for the aforementioned diseases.