He theorized that TNF and related proteins (cytokines), might be injuring the heart muscle.
Smith and Goodwin and their Immunex colleagues discovered nearly a dozen new TNF relatives.
But Smith figured excess TNF might cause autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
Recent research shows that TNF, rather than destroying tumors as first thought, may actually spur their growth.
With natural TNF that does not matter, since the substance is produced only in the tumour itself.
But too much TNF over long periods of time is toxic, causing severe inflammation and tissue damage.
It works by neutralizing a protein produced by your immune system known as tumor necrosis factor (TNF).
In small amounts for short times TNF helps rouse the body to repair wounds and defend against germs.
Enbrel works by blocking a long-mysterious protein in the immune system known as tumor necrosis factor, or TNF.
Smith and Goodwin, believing TNF had sibling receptors that also influenced the immune system, eventually found several more.
The name TNF "is a misnomer, " says Ann Hayes, Immunex senior medical director.
High levels of TNF also are found in the skin of psoriasis patients.
Now scientists are finding evidence of a glut of TNF in many other diseases where it wasn't a suspect.
It contains a man-made version of the body's own molecular receptor for TNF.
Today scientists believe TNF is a critical molecular messenger that helps cells communicate.
The drug is highly effective because it soaks up excess amounts of TNF.
The two used a new technique called expression cloning to fish out the TNF receptor in a mere three months.
He added TNF to heart cells and found that TNF decreased their ability to contract, mimicking what happens in heart failure.
The scientists found that a cell-signaling protein, or cytokine, known as a hippocampal TNF (tumor necrosis factor) played a limited role.
In 2008, NICE said patients would not be able to try a second anti-TNF if their first attempt at anti-TNF therapy failed.
They demonstrated that by inhibiting TNF signaling, some of the depressive effects of light at night could be reversed in the hamsters.
Injected into the arm or leg, Enbrel travels through the body, binding to free TNF molecules to prevent them from docking with the real receptors.
Is simply making an orally available anti-TNF or anti-IL17 interesting enough?
FORBES: Innovation Snapshot: Macrocyclic drugs to unlock new therapeutic targets
The idea got a boost when University of Pittsburgh cardiologist Arthur Feldman found that mice engineered to produce high levels of TNF died early of heart failure.
Then he showed that tissue from failing hearts contains far more TNF than healthy hearts do, suggesting it may degrade the fibrous tissue that holds the heart together.
In March this year, NICE said adalimumab (Humira), etanercept (Enbrel) and infliximab (Remicade) could only be used in the context of research, even for those patients who had failed on one anti-TNF.
In one experiment last year British scientists found that, after being exposed to a powerful carcinogen, mice producing high levels of TNF developed four times as many skin tumors as mice unable to make TNF.
He had been hired to work on a class of immune-system proteins called interleukins, but he had a better idea: He proposed, instead, that the two of them work on cloning the receptors for TNF.
应用推荐