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University of Michigan researchers headed by Gary Glick have on a drug called benzodiazepine-423 (Bz-423) that is effective in treating animal models of human autoimmune disorders and other diseases by dialing down the activity of a key enzyme involved in energy production.

Bz-423 is a chemical cousin of anti-anxiety medications like Valium and Vanax that previously showed effective in reducing effects of arthritis and the autoimmune disease lupus in mice and may be useful in treating psoriasis.

While conventional drugs for this condition can’t discriminate between healthy and disease-causing cells, Bz-423 is highly selective, targeting only disease-causing cells.

"Many drugs block the function of enzymes, essentially turning them off ," said Gary Glick, who is the Werner E. Bachmann Collegiate Professor of Chemistry at U-M.

"Our compound works more like a volume control, so we’re able to dial enzyme activity down to a level that maintains normal function while simultaneously allowing for initiation of a process that selectively kills or disables disease-causing cells."