Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is relevant to many disease processes such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, depression, Alzheimer's Disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, prostate cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Advanced/metastatic cancer patients have higher levels of IL-6 in their blood.
Hence there is an interest in developing anti-IL-6 agents as therapy against many of these diseases. The first such is tocilizumab which has been approved for rheumatoid arthritis. Another, ALD518, is in clinical trials.
Said et al. showed that Il-6 causes an IL-10-dependent inhibition of CD4 T-cell expansion and function by up-regulating PD-1 levels on monocytes which leads to IL-10 production by monocytes after binding of PD-1 by PD-L.
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