Tempering T cells

By Bob Grant Tempering T cells Courtesy of Dave Dorward and Kim J Hasenkrug The paper: L. Collison et al., “The inhibitory cytokine IL-35 contributes to regulatory T-cell function,” Nature, 450:566–71, 2007. (Cited in 113 papers) The finding: A research team centered at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., plucked a novel cytokine from the constellation of molecules that play a role in re

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L. Collison et al., “The inhibitory cytokine IL-35 contributes to regulatory T-cell function,” Nature, 450:566–71, 2007. (Cited in 113 papers)

A research team centered at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., plucked a novel cytokine from the constellation of molecules that play a role in regulating cellular immunity. Dubbed interleukin-35 (IL-35), the compound is expressed by a subset of regulatory T cells and appears to suppress the activity of effector T cells, says Lauren Collison, a St. Jude postdoc and lead author.

From cancer to lupus, a wide variety of diseases and disorders involve improperly functioning T cells, which can attack healthy tissues or fail to adequately combat tumor cells. Identifying the role of IL-35 “means that we’re getting closer to understanding how these natural suppressive mechanisms work,” says University of British Columbia cellular immunologist Megan Levings.

The discovery that IL-35 is an inhibitory cytokine is notable because ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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