Cytokine Frontiers

This book guides the reader through the latest research on the cytokine network, covering signaling pathways, control of the immune response, and potential therapeutics. Different cytokines stimulate diverse responses in various phases of inflammation and immunity, including the innate immune response, the generation of effector T cells, and the development of antibodies by the humoral immune system. It is now clear that the pathophysiology of many infectious, autoimmune, allergic, and malignant diseases can be largely explained by which cytokines are induced and subsequently regulate the cellular responses. In clinical medicine, cytokines are involved in a wide spectrum of diseases. This book describes in three parts the properties and roles of 15 key cytokines under physiological and pathological conditions. Part I presents nine cytokines associated with inflammatory disorders, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and the recently identified new helper T (Th) subset: Th17 cells. Part II gives details of three cytokines associated with allergic disorders, including Th2 responses and recently identified types of innate cells. Part III describes three cytokines that are associated with immunological tolerance and anti-inflammation, including regulatory T (Treg) cells, IL-10-producing Treg (Tr1) cells, and inducible IL-35-producing Treg (iTr35) cells. Cytokines are considered to be important as therapeutic targets for specific agonists or antagonists in numerous immune and inflammatory diseases. The ultimate goal of this book is to facilitate the development of therapeutic treatments for such diseases which has been limited by an insufficient understanding of the biology of cytokines and the complicated network that they create.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.

Cytokines are soluble mediators of intercellular communication. They contribute to a chemical signalling language that regulates development, tissue repair, haemopoiesis, inflammation and the immune response. Potent cytokine polypepides have pleiotropic activities and functional redundancy.They act in a complex network where one cytokine can influence the production of, and response to, many other cytokines. In the past five years, this bewildering array of more than 100 effector molecules and associated cell surface receptors has been simplified by study of cytokine and cytokinereceptor structure; elucidation of convergent intracellular signalling pathways; and molecular genetics, and targeted gene disruption to 'knock-out' production of individual cytokines in mice. It is also now clear that the pathophysiology of infectious, autoimmune and malignant disease can bepartially explained by the induction of cytokines and the subsequent cellular response. Viral homologues exist for many cytokines and receptors and genetic variations in cytokine production may influence response to pathogenic stimuli. Cytokine and cytokine antagonists have shown therapeuticpotential in a number of chronic and acute diseases. The Cytokine Network: Frontiers in Molecular Biology is not a survey of individual cytokines, but guides the reader through the latest research on the cytokine network as a whole covering genomics, signalling pathways, control of the immuneresponse, and therapeutics.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.

The field of cytokine research is expanding at a rapid pace Contributions from the major leading groups in the world on the structure and biological properties of cytokine and cytokine receptors, as well as integrated reviews on cytokines in various physiological and pathological conditions were presented in three issues of International Reviews of Immunology This collection of articles provided a unique source of information However, important discoveries are emerging very rapidly and some of the reviews written in 1997 are already outdated In this book, the editors assemble reviews that have been updated by their authors to include all the recent publications and unpublished data from the authors' laboratories This volume should serve as an excellent reference source for all those concerned by the multiple faces of cytokines in basic research and in the clinic

The Cytokines of the Immune System catalogs cytokines and links them to physiology and pathology, providing a welcome and hugely timely tool for scientists in all related fields. In cataloguing cytokines, it lists their potential for therapeutic use, links them to disease treatments needing further research and development, and shows their utility for learning about the immune system. This book offers a new approach in the study of cytokines by combining detailed guidebook-style cytokine description, disease linking, and presentation of immunologic roles. Supplies new ideas for basic and clinical research Provides cytokine descriptions in a guidebook-style, cataloging the origins, structures, functions, receptors, disease-linkage, and therapeutic potentials Offers a textbook-style view on the immune system with the immunologic role of each cytokine