ABSTRACT
Clinicians have struggled to achieve symptomatic relief, let alone cure, of several diseases in which the primary cause is uncontrolled inflammation in body tissues, particularly rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, either Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Loss of control of the inflammatory response leads to severe chronic inflammation in one or more body tissues. In rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, however, the immune system attacks some of the body's normal tissues as though they were foreign protein. What's more, the level of inflammatory response is out of control, destroying the joints or colonic mucosa. These diseases are progressive, if untreated, and cause the severest symptoms, ruining the patient's quality of life, leading to great and prolonged disability and sometimes death.
