Scientists working in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute at Trinity College Dublin have made an important breakthrough in understanding what goes wrong in our bodies during the progression of inflammatory diseases and—in doing so—unearthed a potential new therapeutic target.
The scientists have found that an enzyme called fumarate hydratase is repressed in macrophages, a frontline inflammatory cell type implicated in a range of diseases including lupus, arthritis, sepsis and COVID-19.
Professor Luke O’Neill, Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity, is the lead author of the research article that has just been published in the journal, Nature. He said, “No one has made a link from fumarate hydratase to inflammatory macrophages before and we feel that this process might be targetable to treat debilitating diseases like lupus, which is a nasty autoimmune disease that damages several parts of the body including the skin, kidneys and joints.”
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