Interleukin-6 in aging and chronic disease: a magnificent pathway.

The human interleukin IL-6 was originally cloned in 1986. In 1993, William Ershler, in his article "IL-6: A Cytokine for Gerontologists," indicated IL-6 as one of the main signaling pathways modulating the complex relationship between aging and chronic morbidity. Over the last 12 years, our understanding of the role of IL-6 in human physiology and pathology has substantially grown, although some of the questions originally posed by Ershler are still debated. In this review, we will focus on IL-6 structure, IL-6 signaling, and trans signaling pathways, and the role of IL-6 in geriatric syndromes and chronic disease. In the final section of this review, we dissect the critical elements of the IL-6 signaling pathway and point out targets for intervention that are targeted by emerging drugs, some still on the horizon and others already being tested in clinical trials.

Full text isn't openly available for this paper (J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci is largely paywalled). The abstract above is the grounded summary. Read at source →

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