Vazirpanah N, et al. - Given that in gout, the deposition of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals in tissues, especially in the joints, causes the inflammation by triggering immune cells to mount an inflammatory reaction and as per recent work, MSU crystals can induce mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling in monocytes encountering these crystals in vitro, researchers investigated the utility of inhibition of mTOR pathway in gout as a novel avenue of treatment in these patients, as it may target both inflammation and comorbidities. Findings revealed higher expression of the mTOR pathway in ex vivo immune cells from patients with gout, which could be mimicked in vitro by stimulating healthy immune cells (B lymphocytes, monocytes, T lymphocytes) with MSU crystals. They observed a reduction of cell death and release of inflammatory mediators by inhibiting mTOR signalling with metformin or rapamycin. Consistent with this, treatment with the mTOR inhibitor metformin leads to a lower frequency of gout attacks among patients. As per these findings, mTOR inhibition has been proposed as a novel therapeutic target of interest in gout treatment.