The push for new anti-inflammatory drugs has pharmaceutical companies flocking to a previously abandoned therapy. Heidi Ledford reports on the resurrection of interleukin-1 blockers. In 1977, researchers isolated a novel protein from human blood that had been exposed to a pathogenic bacterium. Some called the protein a pyrogen because it triggered fever; others called it an activating factor for its ability to stimulate white blood cells. It also damaged joints and influenced liver proteins. Many were sceptical that it was just one protein.
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