An updated advancement of bifunctional IL-27 in inflammatory autoimmune diseases

Wang-Dong Xu; Da-Cheng Wang; Ming Zhao; An-Fang Huang

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2024.1366377

An updated advancement of bifunctional IL-27 in inflammatory autoimmune diseases

Front Immunol. 2024 Mar 19:15:1366377. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1366377. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Wang-Dong Xu^#¹, Da-Cheng Wang^#¹, Ming Zhao^{2

3

4}, An-Fang Huang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Evidence-Based Medicine, School of Public Health, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China.
² Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Nanjing, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Basic and Translational Research on Immune-Mediated Skin Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Nanjing, China.
⁴ Department of Dermatology, Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenomics, Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁵ Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Affiliated Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Interleukin-27 (IL-27) is a member of the IL-12 family. The gene encoding IL-27 is located at chromosome 16p11. IL-27 is considered as a heterodimeric cytokine, which consists of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-induced gene 3 (Ebi3) and IL-27p28. Based on the function of IL-27, it binds to receptor IL-27rα or gp130 and then regulates downstream cascade. To date, findings show that the expression of IL-27 is abnormal in different inflammatory autoimmune diseases (including systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren syndrome, Behcet's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, systemic sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada, and ankylosing spondylitis). Moreover, in vivo and in vitro studies demonstrated that IL-27 is significantly in3volved in the development of these diseases by regulating innate and adaptive immune responses, playing either an anti-inflammatory or a pro-inflammatory role. In this review, we comprehensively summarized information about IL-27 and autoimmunity based on available evidence. It is hoped that targeting IL-27 will hold great promise in the treatment of inflammatory autoimmune disorders in the future.

Keywords: IL-27; autoimmunity; function; immune cell; immunity.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Autoimmune Diseases*
Autoimmunity
Epstein-Barr Virus Infections*
Herpesvirus 4, Human
Humans
Interleukin-27* / genetics

Substances

Interleukin-27

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by grants from the Sichuan Provincial Natural Science Foundation (24NSFSC1590 and 24NSFSC0244).