Cytokines and their Role in Health and Disease: A Brief Overview

Abstract

Cytokines are small, non-structural proteins with low molecular weights which have a complex regulatory influence on inflammation and immunity. It has long been considered that development of immune and inflammatory response involves hematopoietic cells, lymphoid cell, and various pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cells, and cytokines mediate the complex interactions of these cells. Cytokines are the intercellular messengers in the immune system where they integrate function of several cell types in various body compartments into a coherent immune response. They have evolved over the years and now include the interferons, the interleukins, the chemokine family, mesenchymal growth factors, the tumor necrosis factor family and adipokines. Earlier known as `soluble factors`, cytokines are produced by and elicit a response from every cell, with the lone exception of the red blood cell. In response to various stimulus cytokines are secreted from various cells including white blood cells. Pleiotropism is the hallmark of a cytokine and there are failures and successes of cytokines and related agents as therapeutic agents. In the membrane of target cells they have specific receptors for their signal transduction and regulatory functions. Beyond the innate and adaptive immunity, cytokines has a major role in many diverse functions including immune cell differentiation, inflammation, angiogenesis, tumorigenesis, neurobiology, viral pathogenesis etc. In addition to inflammation, immunity and infections, cytokines have now expanded their domain to atherosclerosis and cancer. Thus, cytokines may be useful biomarkers for health and disease and act as diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic agents. This review will highlight the impact of cytokines in various physiological actions, pathophysiological states, therapeutics and the complex interactions between brain and immune cells. knowledge has highlighted the complexity and biphasic nature of cytokines -and the same molecule may have beneficial as well as detrimental effects. For example, interferon-γ (IFNγ), which is essential for defense against several intracellular microorganism such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is also a major cytokine in the pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases. IL-2 is needed for the generation of cytotoxic T-cells (CTL) and forms the basis for several vaccines but the same cytokine drives graft versus host disease and limits the success of bone marrow transplantation [5]. Keywords: Cytokine ReceptorsThe cytokines exert various biological effects through receptors present on the membranes of responsive target cells. These receptors have an extracellular domain, a cytoplasmic domain and a single membrane spanning domain. There is the presence of conserved amino acid sequence motifs on the extracellular domain and these motifs include four conserved cysteine residues. There is also the presence of two polypeptide chains. One is the cytokine specific α subunit and other is a signal transducing β subunit.The nature of the target cell ...

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“…Cytokines are small, soluble, nonstructural proteins with low molecular weight having complex regulatory influence on inflammation and immunity [19]. They are intercellular messengers in the immune system that integrate functions of several cell types in various body compartments to form a coherent immune system [19]. They are involved in growth, differentiation, activation, cell migration, fusion, and apoptotic functions, all of which contribute towards the complexity of the tissue organization in the craniofacial region [6,20].…”

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