Lumiracoxib.: Antiarthritic, COX-2 inhibitor

Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the standard therapy for management of inflammation and pain. Although all available NSAIDs are ineffective against disease progression, they show similar antipyretic, antiinflammatory and analgesic affects and are particularly useful in the therapeutic management of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. NSAIDs act by inhibiting cyclooxgenase (COX), the enzyme responsible for generation of prostaglandins that not only contribute to pain and inflammation but also are cytoprotective. Thus, because NSAIDs indiscriminately inhibit both isoforms of COX (constitutive COX-1 responsible for cytoprotective effects and inducible COX-2 responsible for inflammatory effects), they are associated with increased toxicities such as gastric mucosal erosions and ulcers and renal toxicity. The response has been the search for specific inhibitors of COX-2 which would be as effective as traditional NSAIDs in terms of pain relief but associated with fewer adverse effects. One such novel agent, lumiracoxib, has been shown to he highly selective for COX-2 with little associated gastrointestinal toxicity.