Zytokine

Abstract

Cytokines are highly efficient mediators of the immune system, which are active in nano-to picomolar concentrations.In the past 35 years, new cytokines and entire cytokine families have been discovered, which are tightly connected in the cytokine network.Cytokines regulate basic biologic processes, including the co-ordination of immune and inflammatory reactions, as well as the regulation of haematopoiesis, of repair processes and of development.While cytokines form the basis of the co-ordinated immune surveillance against developing tumours, and suppress the proliferation and the metastasis of established malignancies, cytokines may also act as autocrine or paracrine growth factors for tumours and exert tumour-promoting generalised immunosuppressive effects.Despite the broad spectrum of activity, and the increasing knowledge of the molecular pathways of cytokine action, the identification of suitable therapeutic targets is not trivial.It is therefore not surprising, that the therapeutic applications of cytokines are currently restricted to only few tumour entities.Besides the treatment with recombinant cytokines,cytokine inducers and cytokine antagonists, the semisynthetic fusion proteins (designer-cytokines) and particularly the cell-based therapies open promising innovative therapeutic perspectives.