Peking University Center for Human Disease Genomics, Department of Immunology, Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Ministry of Health, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China.
Cell Immunol. 2012 Jul-Aug;278(1-2):136-42. doi: 10.1016/j.cellimm.2012.07.009. Epub 2012 Aug 16.
Cytokines are soluble proteins that mediate immune reactions and are responsible for communication among immune cells. CD4(+) T cells are the principle sources of cytokines of adaptive immunity. Cytokines play critical roles in the differentiation and effector function of CD4(+) T cells. They also play key roles in diseases, and some of them have been developed into drugs in the forms of recombinant cytokines, soluble receptors and neutralizing antibodies. Therefore, identifying novel potential cytokines is necessary and beneficial for better understanding immunology and enhancing human health. To find novel potential cytokines, we carried out an integrated bioinformatics analysis on the whole human genome. Cytokine candidates were selected for cDNA cloning, sub-cloning, secretion verification, expression profile analysis and functional study. Here, we report a novel soluble protein, VSTM1-v2, which is a classical secretory glycoprotein mainly expressed in immune tissues, and can promote the differentiation and activation of Th17 cells.
细胞因子是介导免疫反应的可溶性蛋白，负责免疫细胞之间的通讯。CD4(+) T 细胞是适应性免疫细胞因子的主要来源。细胞因子在 CD4(+) T 细胞的分化和效应功能中发挥着关键作用。它们在疾病中也起着关键作用，其中一些已被开发成重组细胞因子、可溶性受体和中和抗体形式的药物。因此，鉴定新的潜在细胞因子对于更好地理解免疫学和增强人类健康是必要且有益的。为了寻找新的潜在细胞因子，我们对整个人类基因组进行了综合的生物信息学分析。选择细胞因子候选物进行 cDNA 克隆、亚克隆、分泌验证、表达谱分析和功能研究。在这里，我们报告了一种新型的可溶性蛋白 VSTM1-v2，它是一种主要在免疫组织中表达的经典分泌糖蛋白，可促进 Th17 细胞的分化和激活。
