The Interleukins in Health and Disease

Dear Colleagues,

Interleukins continue to gather strong interest in many fields of biology, particularly in immunology and medicine. They act as soluble mediators not only on nearby cells but also on distant organs. Since the first member, IL-1, was recognized as a leukocytic pyrogen in the early 1980s, the number of interleukin family members has increased, with the most recent addition being IL-39. Interferons and TNF family members also perform as soluble mediators like interleukins. Each interleukin serves a unique physiological function in immune, hematopoietic, neuronal, and metabolic systems by mediating survival, proliferation, differentiation, and activation of various cell types. Thus, their activities are essential for harmonized ontogeny. Interleukin expression is regulated at chromatin remodeling, transcription and post-transcriptional levels. Most interleukin receptors belong to cytokine receptor family and some interleukins share receptors, thus, exhibiting biological redundancy of action. In the target cells, interleukins activate the JAK-STAT and Ras-MAPK signaling pathways to induce a set of unique genes in the respective cell types. Some interleukins, such as IL-1 and TNF family members, activate NF-kB signaling pathways to control genes involved in inflammation. These receptors and intracellular signaling pathways continue to be of significant biological interest.

Interleukins also play central roles in pathological conditions, including infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and malignancies. The relationship between autoimmune diseases and interleukins has led to the development of various types of interleukin inhibitors. For example, in rheumatoid arthritis, anti-TNFα antibody, anti-IL-6 receptor antibody, and JAK inhibitors have led to a paradigm shift in the therapeutic intervention in rheumatoid arthritis. Although these drugs successfully suppress already established inflammation, the mechanisms of sustained interleukin production in a pathological condition are still unclear.

This Special Issue on “the interleukins” addresses the aforementioned biological activities, production mechanisms, gene regulatory mechanisms, receptor systems, and signal transduction. Furthermore, the pathological roles of interleukins in various diseases will be assessed. We hope this Special Issue will provide a platform to allow enhanced research on this exciting topic.

We still receiving manuscripts and expecting new ones, we collect manuscripts for volume 2 at the same topic "The Interleukins in Health and Disease 2019".

Prof. Dr. Tadamitsu Kishimoto
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Masashi Narazaki
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.