Australian Bush Bioactives

About

BACKGROUND The significance of this project is the potential to develop a new topical, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory treatment for dermatitis and psoriasis. Compounds in development are unrelated to those in current clinical use, possibly with a novel mechanism of action and improved safety profile. Topical steroids are widely used in the management of inflammatory skin conditions such as dermatitis and psoriasis. While topical steroids therapies are generally effective and well tolerated when used at low strengths and on a short-term basis, the need to use more potent steroids on a more long term-basis in more severe disease can have undesirable side effects. The limitations of these therapies, particularly in terms of their sideeffect profiles, has driven the ongoing search for new drug entities potentially with novel mechanisms of action and improved safety profiles.. TECHNOLOGY Novel compounds of the clerodane furanoditerpenoid type have been extracted and isolated from the native Australian plant, Dodonea polyandra. Using a well-established animal model of skin inflammation we have demonstrated compounds have antiinflammatory activity. This activity is comparable to that seen with commonly used steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (including hydrocortisone and betamethasone) in the same model. In addition, initial work has indicated the compounds have a different mechanism of action from other commonly used non-steroidal antiinflammatory agents.