7.1　Cytokine Therapy

Cytokines, such as interferons, interleukins, lymphokines, monokines, chemokines, and growth factors, are immune modulators that are produced naturally by numerous cell types.They are small-protein molecules that have variable activities—most importantly, regulation of immunity and inflammation.These messenger molecules, which are secreted by cells of the immune system(such as lymphocytes, monocytes, and macrophages), regulate leukocyte differentiation, migration,activation, and suppression.Certain cytokines can directly enhance or suppress T-cell response against cancer cells, so it is not surprising that the systemic administration of cytokines (initially interferons and interleukins) was among the first approaches to cancer immunotherapy.Early cytokine-based treatments were made possible by the development of recombinant DNA technology using genetically engineered Escherichia coli strains.This enabled the large-scale production of purified recombinant human cytokines that are suitable for systemic administration to patients.Although IFN-α and IL-2 have been best characterized and used for cancer treatment,many additional cytokines are being investigated for use in cancer immunotherapy [1, 2].(https://www.daowen.com)