Interleukin-6, a Major Cytokine in the Central Nervous System

By María Erta, Albert Quintana, J. Hidalgo. International Journal on Biological Sciences, 2012

1,033 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a cytokine originally identified almost 30 years ago as a B-cell differentiation factor, capable of inducing the maturation of B cells into antibody-producing cells. As with many other cytokines, it was soon realized that IL-6 was not a factor only involved in the immune response, but with many critical roles in major physiological systems including the nervous system. IL-6 is now known to participate in neurogenesis (influencing both neurons and glial cells), and in the response of mature neurons and glial cells in normal conditions and following a wide arrange of injury models. In many respects, IL-6 behaves in a neurotrophin-like fashion, and seemingly makes understandable why the cytokine family that it belongs to is known as neuropoietins. Its expression is affected in several of the main brain diseases, and animal models strongly suggest that IL-6 could have a role in the observed neuropathology and that therefore it is a clear target of strategic therapies.

Subfields: Developmental Neuroscience, Neurology, Oncology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/52c9ddb45053b0656e81efb6b08f31ae37c7c142

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Citations in the corpus

• The role of inflammation in the development of epilepsy (2018, background): “Studies indicate that IL-6 upregulation decreases LTP and hippocampal neurogenesis while increasing gliosis, creating conditions that may contribute to epileptogenesis [29, 30].”
• Signaling pathways involved in ischemic stroke: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic interventions (2022, background): “Another vital member among pro-inflammatory interleukins is IL-6, which is secreted by a variety of cells, including monocytes, neurons, and glial cells.(245,246) The IL-6 signaling pathways can be classified into classic signaling, which requires IL-6R and gp130, and trans-signaling, whereby IL-6 i”
• Cytokines and Chemokines at the Crossroads of Neuroinflammation, Neurodegeneration, and Neuropathic Pain (2013, background): “It is produced during reactive astrogliosis as a response to neuronal damage, acting as a neurotrophin promoting neuronal survival, while elevated levels of IL-6 have also been adversely associated with several brain diseases [15].”