Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a multifunctional cytokine that augments interferon-γ production and acts as an important immunomediator in the development of several types of cancer.
An inappropriate production of interleukin-18 (IL-18) contributes to the pathogenesis of malignancies and may influence the clinical outcome of patients.
Considering the fact that IL-18 plays an important role in the interactions among T cells, NK cells, and macrophages and induces IFN-gamma production, efforts should be made to understand the clinical impact of IL-18 cytokine in patients with solid malignancies, as not much study has been conducted in cervix carcinoma.
Here, we demonstrate that interleukin-18 (IL-18)-secreting CAR T cells exhibit enhanced in vivo expansion and persistence and significantly increase long-term survival in syngeneic mouse models of both hematological and solid malignancies.
In this article, we aimed to present an updated review on these aspects regarding the contribution of IL-18 to important diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity, and inflammatory-mediated conditions including allergic diseases, metabolic syndrome, and atherosclerosis.
In this study, we investigated IL-18 expression and its correlation with patient survival and immune cell infiltration in melanoma using cancer gene expression data publicly available through various databases.
Increased IL-18 levels in the serum of cancer patients correlated with malignancy, and IL-18 acts a crucial factor for cell migration in gastric cancer and melanoma.
Inflammasomes, which are intracellular multi-protein complexes, promote acute and chronic inflammation via interleukin-1β or interleukin-18 maturation, and they are known targets for metabolic syndromes and cancer.
No consensus exists on the impact of polymorphisms in cytokines (such as interleukin IL-8 and IL-18) on cancer risk; moreover, there is very little evidence regarding head and neck cancer (HNC).
Our pooled analysis supported that IL-18 is a good candidate for large-scale epidemiological case-control studies that may be a low-penetrance susceptibility biomarker for cancer.
Several lines of evidence suggests that in cancer the inflammasome is positively associated with characteristics such as elevated levels of IL-1β and IL-18, activation of NF-κB signaling, enhanced mitochondrial oxidative stress, and activation of autophagic process.
Short- and long-term administration of interleukin-18 appeared to have no adverse effects on the kidney in these mice, suggesting that administration may be a safe and novel treatment for metabolic diseases and cancer.