Signaling within the body is a cascade-like phenomenon where every step gets progressively more enhanced. It makes more sense to target upstream events since on

Signaling within the body is a cascade-like phenomenon where every step gets progressively more enhanced. It makes more sense to target upstream events since one can use less to have a stronger response. A classic example of this is nasal steroids for seasonal allergies versus histamine blockers. Steroids will actually cause the genes that code for histamine/inflammatory proteins that are released by the cells to be downregulated. Whereas antihistamines bind to the histamine receptor at the penultimate step in the process. Steroids have a much stronger effect and are the current first line treatment for allergic rhinitis.