Association of interleukin-18 and asthma.
Inflammation. 2016 Dec 02;
Authors: Xu MH, Yuan FL, Wang SJ, Xu HY, Li CW, Tong X
Abstract
Cytokine-mediated immunity plays a dominant role in the pathogenesis of various immune diseases, including asthma. The recent identification of the family interleukin (IL)-1-related cytokine IL-18 now contributes to our understanding of the fine-tuning of cellular immunity. IL-18 can act as a cofactor for Th2 cell development and IgE production and also plays an important role in the differentiation of Th1 cells. Recent work identified an IL-18 association with the pathogenesis of asthma, wherein increased IL-18 expression was found in the serum of patients. Furthermore, IL-18 polymorphisms with susceptibility to asthma were reported, suggesting that IL-18 may be therapeutically relevant to asthma. In this review, we discuss the role of IL-18 in the pathogenesis of asthma and its therapeutic potential based on current research.
PMID: 27913952 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]
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