Accordingly, pretreatment with P2X7R inhibitor A740003 was shown to prevents rats from developing TNBS-induced colitis while intraperitoneal administration of A740003 or brilliant blue G is effective in attenuating the severity of TNBS-induced colitis, and reducing myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, collagen deposition, densities of lamina propria T-cells and macrophages (Marques et al., 2014; Fig. 1). The gene discussed is MPO; the disease is colitis.