Cutting edge: IL-26 signals through a novel receptor complex composed of IL-20 receptor 1 and IL-10 receptor 2

  • J Immunol. 2004 Feb 15;172(4):2006-10. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.172.4.2006.
Faruk Sheikh  1 ,  Vitaliy V Baurin ,  Anita Lewis-Antes ,  Nital K Shah ,  Sergey V Smirnov ,  Shubha Anantha ,  Harold Dickensheets ,  Laure Dumoutier ,  Jean-Christophe Renauld ,  Alexander Zdanov ,  Raymond P Donnelly ,  Sergei V Kotenko
Affiliations
  • 1. Division of Therapeutic Proteins, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
PMID: 14764663 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.172.4.2006
Abstract

The receptor for IL-26 (AK155), a cytokine of the IL-10 family, has not previously been defined. We demonstrate that the active receptor complex for IL-26 is a heterodimer composed of two receptor proteins: IL-20R1 and IL-10R2. Signaling through the IL-26R results in activation of STAT1 and STAT3 which can be blocked by neutralizing Abs against IL-20R1 or IL-10R2. IL-10R2 is broadly expressed on a wide variety of tissues, whereas only a limited number of tissues express IL-20R1. Therefore, the ability to respond to IL-26 is restricted by the expression of IL-20R1. IL-10, IL-19, IL-20, IL-22, and IL-24 fail to signal through the combination of IL-10R2 and IL-20R1 proteins, demonstrating that this receptor combination is unique and specific for IL-26.

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