Scientists have discovered a ‘trick’ steroid that they say has the potential to suppress inflammation without the usual side effects. The US researchers led by Dr. Jian-Dong Li, director of the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State and colleagues found steroids also suppress inflammation by upregulating IRAK-M, a key negative regulator of inflammatory pathways. They suggest IRAK-M is a novel target of glucocorticoids to suppress bacteria-induced inflammation. Its discovery could lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies to control overactive inflammation, they said in their paper published in Nature Communications.