Therapeutics: Neutrophil elastase (ELANE; NE; HLE)

In vitro and mouse studies suggest inhibiting NE produced by T cells could help treat neuropathic pain. In a mouse model of spinal cord injury (SCI), NE knockout or the NE inhibitor sivelestat decreased mechanical allodynia compared with normal NE expression or vehicle, respectively. In a mouse model of spinal nerve injury, T cell deficiency decreased mechanical allodynia compared with no deficiency. In the T cell-deficient models, adoptive transfer of wild-type mouse T cells increased allodynia compared with adoptive transfer of NE-knockout T cells. Next steps include testing additional NE inhibitors in mouse models of neuropathic pain, including cancer pain and diabetic neuropathy.

Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. markets sivelestat, a small molecule inhibitor of NE, to treat acute lung injury...