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 posttranscripitional processes. It was suggested that epinastine might prevent the autocrine cycle for recruitment of human eosinophils by inhibiting IL-8 release from these cells. (C) 1997 Academic Press