| abstract |
This invention defines novel compositions which can provide a basis for clinical teatment of several chronic inflammatory diseases, said diseases including varieties of arthritis, ileitis, colitis and other inflammatory disorders, as well as trauma resulting from ischemia and subsequent reperfusion. Increased lipid peroxidation is a common to the etiology of all of the clinical disorders addressed herein. Such increased lipid peroxidation generates carbonyl substances which are cytotoxic and additionally serve to perpetuate and disseminate the inflammatory process. This invention involves use of orally administered amine derivatives of benzoic acid as carbonyl trapping agents. These primary therapeutic agents act by chemically binding to and sequestering the aldehyde and/or ketone products of lipid peroxidation. p-Aminobenzoic acid (or PABA) is an example of the primary agent of the present invention. PABA has a small molecular weight, is water soluble, has a primary amine group which should react with carbonyl-containing metabolites under physiological conditions and is tolerated by the body in relatively high dosages and for extended periods. The method of the present invention includes administration of a composition comprising (1) a therapeutically effective amount of at least one carbonyl sequestering primary therapeutic agent, (2) optionally one or more co-agent such as, for example, an anti-oxidant free radical trapping substance, and (3) at least one medicament recognized as effective to treat said chronic inflammatory disease, so as to produce an additive or synergistic physiological effect of an anti-inflammatory nature. |