Pietro Ghezzi – författare

While many cytokines are known for their inflammatory action, there is a growing interest in the tissue-protective effects of some cytokines. The prototypic tissue-protective cytokine is EPO. Initially described as neuro-protective, it is beneficial in animal models of ischemic and other types of injury. Scientists had to overcome the notion that EPO had only erythropoietic actions, was only produced by the kidney, and that its receptor was only present in erythroid progenitor cells. The use of in vitro and in vivo disease models was essential to demonstrate the protective effects of EPO. Reproducible models will be needed for the further study of the mechanism of action of EPO and for the identification of other tissue-protective cytokines.

 In Tissue-Protective Cytokines: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers in the field detail the key models that have been used to characterize the tissue-protective actions of cytokines. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology™ series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, provide step-by-step laboratory protocols, and key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.

 Thorough and intuitive, Tissue Protective Cytokines: Methods and Protocols aids scientists in continuing to study tissue-protection that will be a new field of interest of cytokine biology, both in discovering novel actions of known cytokines and in developing new drugs.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated in almost every human disease phenotype, without much, if any, therapeutic consequence foremost exemplified by the failure of the so-called anti-oxidants. This book is a game changer for the field and many clinical areas such as cardiology and neurology. The term ‘oxidative stress’ is abandoned and replaced with a systems medicine and network pharmacology-based mechanistic approach to disease. The ROS-related drugs discussed here target either ROS- forming or ROS -modifying enzymes for which there is strong clinical evidence. In addition, ROS targets are included as they jointly participate in causal mechanisms of disease. This approach is transforming the ROS field and represents a breakthrough in redox medicine indicating a path to patient benefit. In the coming years more targets and drugs may be discovered, but the approach will remain the same and this book will thus become, and for many years remain, the leadingreference for ROSopathies and their treatment by network pharmacology.  

Chapter "Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Stimulators and Activators" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.