Role of melanocortin receptors in the regulation of gouty inflammation.

Gouty arthritis is a form of acute joint inflammation provoked by joint deposition of urate crystals. Although this acute pathology resolves after a few days, the marked degree of inflammation in the joint and--possibly more important to the patient--the excruciating pain it causes require proper therapeutic management. Often deemed a "poor sibling" of chronic joint pathologies such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, the increasing incidence of gout makes it a more palatable disease for novel drug discovery programs. This fact, associated with novel insights into the molecular mechanisms activated by the urate crystal deposition, is at the basis of new therapeutics under clinical development for gout, a valid example being the effective targeting of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1. Here we briefly review the current status of antigout drug development and propose another target; our focus is on melanocortin receptor agonists as novel therapeutics for gout and inflammatory arthritides, a prototype of which, the adrenocorticotropic hormone, is already used in clinical settings.