{"id":163505,"date":"2023-05-07T20:22:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T01:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/how-interleukin-6-helps-prevent-allergic-asthma-and-atopy"},"modified":"2023-05-07T20:22:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T01:22:19","slug":"how-interleukin-6-helps-prevent-allergic-asthma-and-atopy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/how-interleukin-6-helps-prevent-allergic-asthma-and-atopy","title":{"rendered":"How interleukin-6 helps prevent allergic asthma and atopy"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

The immune system has a biological telecommunications system\u2014small proteins known as interleukins that send signals among the leukocyte white blood cells to control their defense against infections or nascent cancer. Interleukin-6, or IL-6, is one of these key mediators of inflammation, and it can, as needed, provoke the immune system into attack against pathogens.<\/p>\n

However, imbalances of IL-6\u2014too much or too little\u2014can cause disease, even in the absence of infection. Excess IL-6 is central to the pathogenesis of inflammatory reactions like rheumatoid disease and cytokine storms, while mutations that interrupt IL-6 signaling are also harmful, causing allergic disorders<\/a> known as atopy that affect the skin, airways or body, including atopic dermatitis<\/a>, allergic airway inflammation and hyper-IgE Syndrome, or HIES.<\/p>\n

Loss of IL-6 signaling was known to cause an increase in inflammatory T helper 2, or Th2, cells. T helper cells act like generals, ordering other immune cells<\/a> into action. Now, an unrecognized mechanism of how interrupted IL-6 signaling creates Th2 bias, as well as the specific role of IL-6 signaling in that process, has been described by Beatriz L\u00e9on, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Their study<\/a> is published in Cellular & Molecular Immunology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The immune system has a biological telecommunications system\u2014small proteins known as interleukins that send signals among the leukocyte white blood cells to control their defense against infections or nascent cancer. Interleukin-6, or IL-6, is one of these key mediators of inflammation, and it can, as needed, provoke the immune system into attack against pathogens. However, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}