Division of Pathology and Cell Therapy, Chiba Cancer Center Research Institute, Chiba, Japan.
Front Biosci (Landmark Ed). 2013 Jun 1;18(3):909-18. doi: 10.2741/4152.
Type III interferons (IFNs), a new type IFN family consisting of 3 IFN-lambdas, have been identified through a homology search. They include IFN-lambda1, IFN-lambda2 and IFN-lambda3, which are also named as interleukin (IL)-29, IL-28A and IL-28B, respectively. The receptor complex of IFN-lambdas is composed of the IL-10 receptor beta (IL-10Rbeta) and a novel IL-28 receptor alpha (IL-28Ralpha). The signal transductions of type III IFNs seem to be similar to those of type I IFNs. Both type I and III IFNs activate Janus activated kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signaling pathway and transcribe a number of IFN-associated genes. Various types of viruses induce expressions of type III IFNs as well as type I IFNs; however, the biological functions of type III IFNs could be distinct from those of type I IFNs partly because of the tissue-restricted expression of the type III receptor complexes. In this review, we encapsulate recent understandings about type III IFNs in particular the anti-tumor effects, and discuss possible mechanisms and a potential use for cancer therapy.
III 型干扰素（IFNs）是通过同源性搜索发现的一种新型 IFN 家族，由 3 种 IFN-λ组成。它们包括 IFN-λ1、IFN-λ2 和 IFN-λ3，分别也被命名为白细胞介素（IL）-29、IL-28A 和 IL-28B。IFN-λ的受体复合物由 IL-10 受体β（IL-10Rβ）和新型 IL-28 受体α（IL-28Rα）组成。III 型 IFNs 的信号转导似乎与 I 型 IFNs 相似。I 型和 III 型 IFNs 均可激活 Janus 激酶（JAK）/转录激活因子（STAT）信号通路，并转录许多 IFN 相关基因。各种类型的病毒均可诱导 III 型和 I 型 IFNs 的表达；然而，III 型 IFNs 的生物学功能可能与 I 型 IFNs 不同，部分原因是 III 型受体复合物的组织限制性表达。在这篇综述中，我们总结了关于 III 型 IFNs 的最新认识，特别是其抗肿瘤作用，并讨论了可能的机制及其在癌症治疗中的潜在应用。
