Patent ID: 8114907

Claim:
A method for treating a pulmonary disease state in a mammal, said disease state characterized by abnormally low levels of inflammatory agents in the mammalian cells, said method comprising: contacting the mammalian cells with an inflammatory regulator in an amount effective to up regulate the indigenous in vivo levels of an inflammatory agent in said cells; wherein said inflammatory regulator comprises a mixture of (i) pyruvate, a pyruvate precursor, or salts thereof, and (ii) α-keto-isovaleric acid, a precursor of α-keto-isovaleric acid, or salts thereof; and wherein said inflammatory agents are selected from the group consisting of elastase, white blood cells and cytokines selected from the group consisting of interleukin-6, interleukin-8, interleukin-10, interleukin-17, interleukin-23 and tumor necrosis factor-α.