US drug researcher Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals has sought regulatory clearance to initiate Phase 1 and 2 l trials of ARO-RAGE, its investigational RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic as a potential treatment for asthma and other inflammatory pulmonary diseases. The company revealed that the drug works by reducing the production of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), which is reportedly a promising target as it represents an upstream mediator of the inflammatory cascade in asthma. Arrowhead also seeks to evaluate 64 healthy volunteers and up to 16 patients with asthma with ARORAGE-1001, in the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics study.