Abstract
Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is a heterodimeric cytokine and is a member of the larger family of IL-12-related cytokines. The other members of the IL-12 family include IL-23, IL-27, and IL-35. While IL-12 shares numerous structural features and molecular receptors with other members of its family, IL-12 is functionally unique (Vignali and Kuchroo, Nat Immunol 13:722–728, 2012). IL-12 was first recovered from an Epstein-Barr virus-transformed B lymphoblastoid cell line in 1989 as “natural killer-stimulating factor” (Kobayashi et al., J Exp Med 170:827–845, 1989). The following year, a separate group independently discovered IL-12 as “cytotoxic lymphocyte maturation factor” (Stern et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 87:6808, 1990). Since its discovery, a tremendous amount of research has been conducted to characterize the physiologic function of IL-12 and assess therapeutic potential of agonist and antagonistic targeting of IL-12 for the treatment of a variety of diseases.
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Kaufman, H.L., Dharmadhikari, N. (2017). Interleukin-12. In: Marshall, J. (eds) Cancer Therapeutic Targets. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0717-2_144
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0717-2_144
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