IL-13:一个前景广阔的治疗支气管哮喘的靶位点

支气管哮喘(简称哮喘)是最常见的过敏性疾病,它是多种细胞参与的慢性气道炎症.大量的实验研究已证实,白介素13(interleukin-13,IL-13)在哮喘发病机制中起中轴作用.也有研究表明,编码IL-13的信号分子的几个基因的遗传联合在哮喘患者体内有很高的表达.因此,众多哮喘的治疗因子中,IL-13及其信号途径作为有前景的治疗靶位点终将展示其诱人的临床价值,为哮喘治疗提供新思路.那么应用IL-13的对抗物阻断IL-13的生物活性对于改善治疗哮喘应该是一个好策略.

IL-13:a promising therapeutic target for bronchial asthma

The incidence of allergic diseases has dramatically increased in recent decades, especially in urban and industrialized areas. It is important socially as well as medically to establish more useful strategies to overcome allergic disorders. Bronchial asthma (asthma) is a complex disease characterized by airway inflammation involving a Th2-cytokine,interleukin (IL)-13. A substantial body of evidence has accumulated pointing to the pivotal role of IL-13 in the pathogenesis of asthma, based on mainly analyses of mouse models. In addition to such analyses,the high expression of IL-13 in lesions and genetic association of several genes coding IL-13 signaling molecules with asthma have raised the possibility that IL-13 plays a pivotal role in the onset or exacerbation of human asthma. Therefore, IL-13 and its signal pathway are thought to be promising targets to develop a therapeutic agent for asthma. This article describes how IL-13 is involved in the pathogenesis of asthma and then how therapeutic agents to block IL-13 signals are developed for asthma.