Preclinical characterisation of itacitinib, a Novel Selective Inhibitor of JAK1, for the Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases

Covington M, He X, Scuron M, Li J, Collins R, Juvekar A, Shin N, Favata M, Gallagher K, Sarah S, Xue CB, Peel M, Burke K, Oliver J, Fay B, Yao W, Huang T, Scherle P, Diamond S, Newton R, Zhang Y, Smith.
European Journal of Pharmacology. 2020 Oct 15;885:173505. doi: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2020.173505

Itacitinib is an orally active JAK inhibitor and effectively delayed disease onset, reduced symptom severity, and accelerated recovery of inflammatory diseases in mouse models. Covington M et al demonstrated itacitinib’s high selectivity for JAK 1, its inhibition on IL-2 induced T cell proliferation and JAK/STAT signalling, its ability to also inhibit of the JAK/STAT pathway in response to IL-6 stimulation, and its effect on rat adjuvant induced arthritis model. The study used recombina...