A novel antiallergic drug epinastine inhibits IL-8 release from human eosinophils.

Eosinophils are believed to be one of the important sources of cytokines at the site of allergic inflammation. A novel antiallergic agent epinastine showed a dose- and time-dependent suppressive effect on IL-8, one of the chemokines for eosinophils, released from eosinophils isolated from atopic diseases. The time-dependent accumulation of IL-8 inhibited by cycloheximide and the evaluation of the IL-8 mRNA levels by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction suggested that its action occurred in the posttranscriptional processes. It was suggested that epinastine might prevent the autocrine cycle for recruitment of human eosinophils by inhibiting IL-8 release from these cells.