ABSTRACT

A search of Chemical Abstracts, conducted in mid 1986, produced over 2600 references to cyclooxygenase inhibition. The number of citations rose from less than ten per year up to 1972, to more than 400 in 1985. Although recent research in eicosanoid biosynthesis has been directed more towards lipoxygenase products, there remains considerable interest in the cyclooxygenase pathway. The pharmaceutical industry, which in the 1970s developed a large number of cyclooxygenase inhibitors for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases and pain, has in recent years sought, so far with limited success, agents which would reverse, rather than retard, the tissue destruction and loss of joint function which accompanies rheumatoid arthritis. Until more effective agents are developed, the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, most of which are believed to act through inhibition of cyclooxygenase, will remain among the most important classes of drugs in use today.