1. Academic Validation
  2. Loss of the interleukin-6 receptor causes immunodeficiency, atopy, and abnormal inflammatory responses

Loss of the interleukin-6 receptor causes immunodeficiency, atopy, and abnormal inflammatory responses

  • J Exp Med. 2019 Sep 2;216(9):1986-1998. doi: 10.1084/jem.20190344.
Sarah Spencer # 1 2 Sevgi Köstel Bal # 3 4 William Egner # 5 6 Hana Lango Allen # 7 8 Syed I Raza # 9 Chi A Ma # 10 Meltem Gürel # 11 Yuan Zhang # 10 Guangping Sun # 10 Ruth A Sabroe 12 Daniel Greene 7 8 13 William Rae 2 Tala Shahin 3 4 Katarzyna Kania 11 Rico Chandra Ardy 3 4 Marini Thian 3 4 14 15 Emily Staples 2 Annika Pecchia-Bekkum 2 William P M Worrall 2 Jonathan Stephens 7 8 16 Matthew Brown 7 8 16 Salih Tuna 7 8 16 Melanie York 5 6 Fiona Shackley 5 6 Diarmuid Kerrin 17 Ravishankar Sargur 5 6 Alison Condliffe 5 6 Hamid Nawaz Tipu 18 Hye Sun Kuehn 19 Sergio D Rosenzweig 19 Ernest Turro 7 8 13 16 Simon Tavaré 11 20 21 Adrian J Thrasher 22 Duncan Ian Jodrell 23 Kenneth G C Smith 2 Kaan Boztug # 24 4 14 15 25 Joshua D Milner # 26 James E D Thaventhiran # 27 2 11
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
  • 2 Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
  • 3 Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, Vienna, Austria.
  • 4 CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
  • 5 Sheffield Teaching Hospitals National Health Service Trust, Sheffield, UK.
  • 6 Department of Infection Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
  • 7 Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
  • 8 National Institute for Health Research BioResource, Cambridge University Hospitals, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
  • 9 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
  • 10 Laboratory of Allergic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
  • 11 Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
  • 12 Department of Dermatology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals National Health Service Trust, Sheffield, UK.
  • 13 Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
  • 14 Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
  • 15 St. Anna Kinderspital and Children's Cancer Research Institute, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
  • 16 National Health Service Blood and Transplant Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
  • 17 Barnsley Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust, Barnsley, UK.
  • 18 Immunology Department, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
  • 19 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
  • 20 Herbert and Florence Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics, Columbia University, New York, NY.
  • 21 New York Genome Center, New York, NY.
  • 22 Molecular and Cellular Immunology Section, University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital National Health Service Trust, London, UK.
  • 23 Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK.
  • 24 Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, Vienna, Austria [email protected].
  • 25 Vienna Center for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, Vienna, Austria.
  • 26 Laboratory of Allergic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD [email protected].
  • 27 Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK [email protected].
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

IL-6 excess is central to the pathogenesis of multiple inflammatory conditions and is targeted in clinical practice by immunotherapy that blocks the IL-6 receptor encoded by IL6R We describe two patients with homozygous mutations in IL6R who presented with recurrent infections, abnormal acute-phase responses, elevated IgE, eczema, and eosinophilia. This study identifies a novel primary immunodeficiency, clarifying the contribution of IL-6 to the phenotype of patients with mutations in IL6ST, STAT3, and ZNF341, genes encoding different components of the IL-6 signaling pathway, and alerts us to the potential toxicity of drugs targeting the IL-6R.

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