Biron C A, Gazzinelli R T
Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
Curr Opin Immunol. 1995 Aug;7(4):485-96. doi: 10.1016/0952-7915(95)80093-x.
Recent studies have documented that the immunoregulatory functions of IL-12 may play a role in promoting endogenous protective responses during infections and/or contribute to pathology resulting from unregulated cytokine expression. Pathogen induction of IL-12 elicits interferon-gamma production by natural killer cells, which contributes to early defense during certain bacterial, parasitic, and viral infections. IL-12 also facilitates the development of T helper type 1 (Th1) lymphocytes required for late protection against bacteria, parasites, and fungi. During viral infections, however, there appear to be mechanisms independent of IL-12 for inducing protective T-cell responses. In contrast, negative regulation of IL-12 during acute infections can be a key event in the establishment of chronic infection and protection against harmful excessive cellular immune response. Under appropriate conditions, IL-12 has therapeutic efficacy for promoting defense against a variety of pathogens, and for use as a vaccine adjuvant to enhance beneficial Th1 over detrimental Th2 lymphocyte responses. This information extends knowledge about the regulation of immune responses to infectious agents, and provides new insights for the development of treatment and adjuvant strategies to potentiate beneficial or inhibit detrimental endogenous immune responses.
最近的研究表明，白细胞介素-12（IL-12）的免疫调节功能可能在促进感染期间的内源性保护反应中发挥作用，和/或导致细胞因子表达失控所引起的病理变化。病原体诱导产生的IL-12可促使自然杀伤细胞产生γ干扰素，这有助于在某些细菌、寄生虫和病毒感染期间进行早期防御。IL-12还促进1型辅助性T（Th1）淋巴细胞的发育，而这些淋巴细胞是后期抵抗细菌、寄生虫和真菌所必需的。然而，在病毒感染期间，似乎存在独立于IL-12的机制来诱导保护性T细胞反应。相反，急性感染期间IL-12的负调控可能是建立慢性感染和防止有害的过度细胞免疫反应的关键事件。在适当条件下，IL-12具有促进抵御多种病原体的治疗效果，并可用作疫苗佐剂，以增强有益的Th1淋巴细胞反应，抑制有害的Th2淋巴细胞反应。这些信息扩展了关于对感染因子免疫反应调节的知识，并为开发治疗和佐剂策略提供了新的见解，以增强有益的或抑制有害的内源性免疫反应。
