Interleukin-17

Synonyms

CTLA-8 in rodents

Definition

Interleukin-17(IL-17, IL-17A) is the founding member of a group of the IL-17 cytokine family. In 1993, it was originally identified as a transcript from a rodent T cell hybridoma by Rouvier et al. and known as CTLA8 in rodents. IL-17 shows high homology to an open reading frame of the T lymphotropic rhadinovirus Herpesvirus saimiri. After the identification of IL-17 and of its crucial features, it has been extensively demonstrated that a number of both spontaneous and induced diseases were associated with IL-17 expression and production in humans and mice.

Characteristics

So far, the importance of IL-17 in human diseases and animal models were demonstrated in psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, hyper-immunoglobulin E syndrome, asthma, bacterial/fungal infection, as well as cancer. IL-17 is a delayed-type cytokine that acts as a potent mediator to increase recruit monocytes and neutrophils to the site of...