From willow bark to peptides: the ever widening spectrum of NF-kappaB inhibitors.

Inflammation disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and inflammatory bowel disease can be considered as 'gene expression' diseases in which the pro-inflammatory gene program of the organism is aberrantly activated. Over the past 20 years, great attention has been given to the transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) for its involvement in inflammatory and immune diseases. Recently, several studies have been devoted to the development of new molecules that can prevent the expression of inflammatory genes by targeting NF-kappaB pathways. Therefore, it is possible to hypothesize that these molecules might represent the future class of drugs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.