IL-4 and IL-13 receptors: Roles in immunity and powerful vaccine adjuvants

The roles of IL-4 and IL-13 during both innate and adaptive Th2 mediated immunity has received considerable scrutiny, however, mechanisms by which these cytokines influence the cellular interactions involved in negatively modulating the development of effective Th1 immunity is poorly characterized. In this article we discuss the recent advances in IL-4/IL-13 biology, mainly i) role of these cytokines in allergic inflammation, atopic dermatitis, cancer, transplant rejection, bacterial/viral infections, and specifically the therapeutic potential of IL-13Rα2, ii) insights into how “alarmin” stimulation activate IL-4/IL-13 at the lung mucosae, iii) how these two cytokines modulate antigen-specific CD8+ T cell quality/avidity in a vaccine route dependent manner and iv) finally discuss the potential of using transient inhibition of IL-4 and/or IL-13 at the vaccination as a platform vaccine technology to induce strong sustained high quality CD8+ T cell immunity for protection against many chronic mucosal pathogens such as HIV-1.
Source: Cytokine and Growth Factor Reviews - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Source Type: research