Anti-Inflammatory & Anti-Allergy Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Formerly Current Medicinal Chemistry - Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Allergy Agents) - Volume 5, Issue 3, 2006

Cytokines are key mediators of the immune system,playing a major role in health and disease. Their crucial importance in host defense, hematopoiesis, inflammation,autoimmunity, tumor and other diseases became obvious over the last two to three decades. Today, targeting components of the cytokine network represents a promising new therapeutic approach, which includes both strategies for antagonizing Read More

The interleukin-10 (IL-10) family of cytokines includes IL-10, its viral homologs, and eight cellular cytokines: IL-19, IL-20, IL-22, IL-24, IL-26, IFN-λ1, IFN-λ2, and IFN-λ3. Cellular homologs use for signaling five recently discovered membrane-bound receptors: three long receptor chains (IL-20R1, IL-22R1, and IFN-λR) and two short receptor chains (IL-20R2 and IL-10R2). Signal transduction is initiated when cytokine binds two recep Read More

The interleukin (IL)-10 family of cytokines comprising IL-10, IL-19, IL-20, IL-22, IL-24, IL-26, IL-28α, IL- 28β, and IL-29 uses receptors of the cytokine receptor family class 2. Here we review the current knowledge about IL-22 receptor-α2 (IL-22Rα2) which is the first known soluble receptor of that cytokine family. The human IL-22Rα2-encoding gene includes seven exons and is located on chromosome 6 between the genes for inter Read More

Interleukin (IL)-10, initially described as cytokine synthesis inhibitory factor, is a pleotropic cytokine produced by many cell populations. Its main biological functions appear to be quite diverse: on the one hand it is involved in the limitation and termination of inflammatory responses and the regulation of differentiation and proliferation of several immune cells, and on the other hand it mediates immunostimulatory properties Read More

Interleukin(IL) -19 is a member of the recently described IL-10 family of cytokines. Based on the genomic localization of its gene, its structure, conserved amino acids, cellular sources and receptor, IL-19 forms a subfamily with IL- 20 and IL-24. The IL-19-encoding gene comprises seven exons and is located on chromosome 1. Secreted IL-19 is composed of 159 amino acids that form an α-helical structure. IL-19 is produc Read More

IL-20 is a member of the IL-10 family of cytokines that also includes IL-10, IL-19, IL-22, IL-24, and IL-26 as well as a number of viral homologs. Keratinocytes and monocytes in states of activation can produce IL-20. It transmits signals via two different cell-surface receptor complexes resulting in the activation of STAT3 in keratinocytes and other epithelial cells. Thus it appears to be primarily an inducible autocrine and Read More

Originally identified as a gene specifically induced by IL-9 in a mouse T cell lymphoma, IL-22 is mainly produced by TH1 cells or by activated T cells. Human IL-22, which shares 79% amino acid identity with its mouse orthologue and 25% with IL-10 is encoded by a single copy gene and located on chromosome 12, close to the IFNγ gene, whereas the murine IL-22 gene is located on chromosome 10 and is duplicated in some mouse Read More

Developing effective and safe therapies for cancer continues to be a primary objective of both basic researchers and clinicians. However, despite evidence of progress in treating specific tumors, in many instances, especially in the context of metastasis, no effective therapies are available. A focus of our laboratories is to develop improved cancer therapeutics that exploit differences in signaling pathways and gene expression i Read More

Interleukin-26 (IL-26) belongs to the family of cellular cytokines which share sequence homology with IL-10, however, without functional conservation. The il-26 gene is situated on the human chromosome 12q15 in close neighbourhood to the genes for the related T-cellular cytokines interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and IL-22. il-26 was discovered due to its overexpression in T cells after growth transformation with herpesvirus sai Read More

IFN-λs or type III IFNs are also known as IL-28/29. This group of cytokines is the latest addition to the family of cytokines that signal through receptors of the class II cytokine receptor family (CRF2). Although IFN-λs and IFN-α/β (type I IFNs) utilize distinct receptor complexes for signaling, type I and type III IFNs activate the same intracellular signaling pathway and many similar biological activities, including the ability to ind Read More