New potential drug target for pneumonia

Date:
October 29, 2021
Source:
Karolinska Institutet
Summary:
Researchers report that a recently discovered inflammatory mediator,
interleukin-26, appears to have an important role in pneumonia
and contribute to the killing of bacteria.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report that a recently discovered inflammatory mediator, interleukin-26, appears to have an
important role in pneumonia and contribute to the killing of bacteria. The study is published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Immunology -- Microbial Immunology.


========================================================================== Bacterial lung infection affects both children and adults worldwide and pneumonia remains a common cause of premature death in many parts of the
world, with millions of people dying from it every year. To facilitate
the development of more effective therapies, researchers at Karolinska Institutet are trying to characterise the immunological mechanisms
involved in pneumonia.

The new study demonstrates that an inflammatory mediator called
interleukin-26 (IL-26) is critically involved in bacterial pneumonia in
humans. During the last decade, IL-26 has emerged as an important player
in the so-called innate immune response, our first line of defence
against pathogens. It is abundant in the airways of healthy humans,
and bacterial exposure stimulates an increased release of IL-26 by lung
cells and white blood cells.

Studying human lung tissue and airway samples from patients with bacterial pneumonia, the researchers were able to show that IL-26 exerts complex modulatory effects on the immune system and that the protein directly
kills bacteria known to cause pneumonia.

"Antibiotics are not sufficient to treat pneumonia and antibiotic
resistance is an increasing problem, highlighting the need for biological treatments of this global killer disease. Our findings position IL-26 as
a new potential target for biological treatment and emphasise that its
role in pneumonia deserves to be further evaluated," says lead author
Karlhans Che, a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet.

The research was financed by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, The
Swedish Research Council, Region Stockholm (ALF funding), and The Swedish Society for Medical Research.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Karolinska_Institutet. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Karlhans F. Che, Magnus Paulsson, Krzysztof Piersiala, Jakob Sax,
Ibrahim
Mboob, Mizanur Rahman, Rokeya S. Rekha, Jesper Sa"fholm, Mikael
Adner, Peter Bergman, Lars-Olaf Cardell, Kristian Riesbeck,
Anders Linde'n.

Complex Involvement of Interleukin-26 in Bacterial Lung Infection.

Frontiers in Immunology, 2021; 12 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.761317 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211029103143.htm

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