Skip to content
2000
Volume 15, Issue 7
  • ISSN: 1381-6128
  • E-ISSN: 1873-4286

Abstract

In recent years, complexes formed from a cytokine and antibodies against that respective cytokine (cytokine/ Ab complex) have been shown to induce remarkable powerful changes in the immune system. Strong interest exists especially for complexes formed with Interleukin (IL)-2 and anti-IL-2-antibody (IL-2/Ab complex). IL-2/Ab complex activates maturation and proliferation in CD8+ T cells and natural killer (NK) cells to a much higher degree than conventional IL-2 therapy. In addition, IL-2/Ab complex does not stimulate regulatory T cells as much as IL-2 alone. This suggests the possibility to replace the conventional IL-2 therapy with a therapy using low-dose IL-2/Ab complex. Further synthetic cytokine/Ab complexes are studied currently, including IL-3/Ab complex for its effects on the mast cell population, and IL-4/Ab complex and IL-7/Ab complex for inducing B and T cell expansion and maturation. Cytokine complexes can also be made from a cytokine and its soluble receptor. Pre-association of IL-15 with soluble IL-15 receptor α produces a complex with strong agonistic functions that lead to an expansion of CD8+ T cells and NK cells. However, cytokine/ Ab complexes also occur naturally in humans. A multitude of auto-antibodies to cytokines are found in human sera, and many of these auto-antibodies build cytokine/Ab complexes. This review presents naturally occurring autoantibodies to cytokines and cytokine/Ab complexes in health and disease. It further summarizes recent research on synthetic cytokine/Ab complexes with a focus on the basic mechanisms behind the function of cytokine/Ab complexes.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/cpd/10.2174/138161209787582174
2009-03-01
2025-05-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/cpd/10.2174/138161209787582174
Loading

  • Article Type:
    Research Article
Keyword(s): adjuvant; antibody; complex; Cytokine; cytokine antibody complex; immunostimulant; NK cell; T cell
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test