The mice that were not pretreated with resveratrol experienced a strong inflammatory response, simulating disease in humans, while the group pretreated with resveratrol was protected from the inflammation.

The scientists then examined the tissues of the mice to determine exactly how resveratrol was able to protect the mice from inflammation, said a release of Glasgow Biomedical.

They found that resveratrol used a one-two punch to stop inflammation in the mice by preventing the body from creating two different molecules known to trigger inflammation, sphingosine kinase and phospholipase D.

This finding suggests that resveratrol can be harnessed as a treatment for inflammatory diseases and may also lead to entirely new resveratrol-based drugs that are even more effective.

These findings were published in the August print issue of The FASEB Journal.