Soluble Interleukin-6 Receptor (sIL-6R): Role in Health and Disease
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Cell Signaling".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 January 2026 | Viewed by 664
Special Issue Editors
Interests: HCMV; NK cell; immunomodulation; COVID; IL-6
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: IL-6/IL-6R signalling; long- COVID; exercise physiology; fatigue; Ca2+ signalling/homeostasis
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The pleiotropic cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is involved in a diverse set of physiological and pathological processes. Traditionally, IL-6 has been thought of in terms of its inflammatory actions during the acute phase response and in chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, long COVID and obesity. However, IL-6 is also an important signalling molecule during exercise, being acutely released from working muscle fibres to enable muscle–organ crosstalk, and facilitate a coordinated response to exercise. Finally, more recently, IL-6 signalling has been implicated in neuroinflammatory signalling events related to certain mental health disorders.
The biology of IL-6 is complex: IL-6 signalling requires the binding of IL-6 to the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) and the IL-6 signal transducer (IL-6ST, or gp130), leading to the activation of multiple intracellular signalling pathways. Classic IL-6 signalling, which is initiated by IL-6 binding to membrane-bound IL-6R (mIL-6R), is limited to cells expressing mIL6-R such as hepatocytes, skeletal myocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, and resting lymphocytes. IL-6 binding to soluble IL-6R (sIL6-R) forms an IL-6/sIL-6R complex that can initiate IL-6 trans-signalling in cells that express IL-6ST but lack the expression of mIL-6R, allowing a wider range of cells to respond to IL-6. More recently, a third mechanism of IL-6 signalling termed IL-6 trans-presentation has been described.
Recent advances in the field continue to provide insights into the roles of sIL-6R and its related signalling pathways in health and disease. In this Special Issue, we welcome the submission of manuscripts concerning, but not limited to, the following keywords regarding sIL-6R's role in health and disease.
We would like to invite you to contribute original articles, reviews, communications, etc., to this Special Issue and look forward to hearing from you.
Dr. Rebecca Aicheler
Dr. Richard Webb
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- sIL-6R
- IL-6 signalling
- IL-6ST
- genetic polymorphism
- health
- disease
- exercise physiology
- therapeutics
- mental health
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