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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1514080
This article is part of the Research Topic The Pivotal Role of Cytokines in Autoimmune Diseases View all 10 articles

IL-6/IL-12 Superfamily of Cytokines and Cytokine-producing Regulatory Lymphocytes: Role in CNS Autoimmune Diseases

Provisionally accepted
Manoj Kumar Yadav Manoj Kumar Yadav 1Samara P Singh Samara P Singh 1Charles E Egwuagu Charles E Egwuagu 1,2*
  • 1 National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States
  • 2 National Eye Institute (NIH), Bethesda, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Cytokines influence cell-fate decisions of naïve lymphocytes and determine outcome of immune responses by transducing signals that regulate the initiation, intensity and duration of immune responses. However, aberrant regulation of physiological levels of cytokines contribute to the development of autoimmune and other inflammatory diseases. The Interleukin 6 (IL-6)/IL-12 superfamily of cytokines have a profound influence on all aspects of host immunity and our focus in this review is on the signaling pathways that mediate their functions, with emphasis on how this enigmatic family of cytokines promote or suppress inflammation depending on the physiological context. We also describe regulatory lymphocyte populations that suppress neuroinflammatory diseases by producing cytokines, such as IL-27 (i27-Breg) or IL-35 (i35-Breg and iTR35). We conclude with emerging immunotherapies like STAT-specific Nanobodies, Exosomes and Breg therapy that ameliorate CNS autoimmune diseases in preclinical studies.

    Keywords: Cytokines, Uveitis, Multiple-sclerosis, EAU, EAE, JAK/STAT, Exosomes, Nanobody

    Received: 19 Oct 2024; Accepted: 06 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yadav, Singh and Egwuagu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Charles E Egwuagu, National Eye Institute (NIH), Bethesda, United States

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