Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
9.0
4.9
Journals
IJMS
Special Issues
Latest Advances in Cytokine Storm
ijms-logo
Submit to IJMS Review for IJMS Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Latest Advances in Cytokine Storm

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2025) | Viewed by 3071

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Raymond Kaempfer

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Medical Research Israel-Canada, The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem 9112102, Israel
Interests: cytokine storm; inflammatory; stress response kinase PKR

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cytokine storm, also termed cytokine release syndrome, currently constitutes a highly actual and largely unsolved problem. The inflammatory cytokine response is essential for protective immunity, yet bacterial and viral pathogens often elicit an exaggerated inflammatory response harmful to the host that can cause multi-organ damage and lethality. The problem is compounded by the increasing incidence of multi-drug-resistant bacterial strains. Much has been published recently on cytokine storm within the context of the coronavirus pandemic, yet bacterial sepsis, severe wound infections, toxic shock, and chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy of cancer provide other prominent examples.

This Special Issue of IJMS invites contributions from all scientific areas that involve cytokine storm and will provide a forum for the exchange of new concepts and original results from in vitro to in vivo studies.

Prof. Dr. Raymond Kaempfer
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cytokine storm
  • cytokine release syndrome
  • inflammatory
  • protective immunity
  • multi-drug resistant bacterial strains

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

27 pages, 18325 KB  
Article
Prediction of Hyperinflammatory Phenotypes in Critically Ill Patients via Routine Clinical Data and IL-6: Towards Personalized Anti-Inflammatory Therapy
by Charlotte Linz, Alexander Shimabukuro-Vornhagen, Nina Hesse, Lucie Probst, Jorge Garcia Borrega, Dennis A. Eichenauer, Matthias Kochanek, Michael von Bergwelt-Baildon and Boris Böll
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(20), 9967; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26209967 - 13 Oct 2025
Viewed by 474
Abstract
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a central mediator of systemic inflammation and is markedly elevated in critical illnesses, including sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and hyperinflammatory syndromes. Patient responses to immunomodulatory therapies vary, highlighting the need to better understand IL-6 regulation and its clinical implications. [...] Read more.
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a central mediator of systemic inflammation and is markedly elevated in critical illnesses, including sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and hyperinflammatory syndromes. Patient responses to immunomodulatory therapies vary, highlighting the need to better understand IL-6 regulation and its clinical implications. We retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients admitted to a medical intensive care unit in a quaternary academic center with a comprehensive cancer program, extracting clinical and laboratory data, including inflammatory markers and plasma IL-6 levels. Plasma IL-6 concentrations were measured using an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Survival analyses, multivariable adaptive Lasso regression, Bayesian logistic regression, and latent class analysis were performed to define determinants of IL-6 regulation, mortality, and inflammatory phenotypes. IL-6 levels were substantially elevated in sepsis (median 1150 pg/mL) and neutropenia (median 7866 pg/mL), with extreme concentrations exceeding 20,000 pg/mL when both were present. Although IL-6 across its full range was not independently predictive of intensive care unit mortality, dichotomized thresholds (≥200 pg/mL) correlated with lower survival. Advanced modeling defined a hyperinflammatory phenotype characterized by IL-6 ≥ 100 pg/mL and predicted mortality >40%, showing mortality of 58%, alongside distinct latent subgroups with heterogeneous inflammatory activity and outcomes. These results emphasize the prominent role of sepsis and neutropenia in driving IL-6 elevations and reveal inflammatory phenotypes with potential for risk stratification and targeted anti-cytokine therapy in critical illness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Latest Advances in Cytokine Storm)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

11 pages, 2272 KB  
Review
Subduing the Inflammatory Cytokine Storm
by Raymond Kaempfer
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(20), 11194; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms252011194 - 18 Oct 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2170
Abstract
The inflammatory cytokine response is essential for protective immunity, yet bacterial and viral pathogens often elicit an exaggerated response (“cytokine storm”) harmful to the host that can cause multi-organ damage and lethality. Much has been published recently on the cytokine storm within the [...] Read more.
The inflammatory cytokine response is essential for protective immunity, yet bacterial and viral pathogens often elicit an exaggerated response (“cytokine storm”) harmful to the host that can cause multi-organ damage and lethality. Much has been published recently on the cytokine storm within the context of the coronavirus pandemic, yet bacterial sepsis, severe wound infections and toxic shock provide other prominent examples. The problem of the cytokine storm is compounded by the increasing incidence of multidrug-resistant bacterial strains. We created an incisive molecular tool for analyzing the role of the B7/CD28 costimulatory axis in the human inflammatory response. To attenuate the cytokine storm underlying infection pathology, yet preserve host defenses, we uniquely targeted the engagement of CD28 with its B7 co-ligands by means of short peptide mimetics of the human CD28 and B7 receptor homodimer interfaces. These peptides are not only effective tools for dissecting mechanism but also serve to attenuate the inflammatory response as a broad host-oriented therapeutic strategy against the cytokine storm. Indeed, such peptides protect mice from lethal Gram-positive bacterial superantigen-induced toxic shock even when dosed in molar amounts well below that of the superantigen and show promise in protecting humans from the severe inflammatory disease necrotizing soft tissue infections (‘flesh-eating’ bacterial sepsis) following traumatic wound injuries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Latest Advances in Cytokine Storm)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop