From the bench to the clinic: basophils and type 2 epithelial cytokines of thymic stromal lymphopoietin and IL-33.

Type 2 epithelial cytokines, including thymic stromal lymphopoietin and IL-33, play central roles in modulation of type 2 immune cells, such as basophils. Basophils are a small subset of granulocytes within the leukocyte population that predominantly exist in the blood. They have non-redundant roles in allergic inflammation in peripheral tissues such as the lung, skin and gut, where they increase and accumulate at inflammatory lesions and exclusively produce large amounts of IL-4, a type 2 cytokine.

A peptoid interleukin-15 receptor antagonist suppresses inflammation and arthritis in mice.

Objective: To discover a novel peptoid antagonist that targets the interleukin-15 (IL-15) receptor and to evaluate its therapeutic efficacy in the treatment of inflammation and arthritis.

Methods: A new compound (IFRA3, interleukin-15 receptor antagonist 3) was discovered using a unique on-bead two-colour combinatorial cell screening of a peptoid library. The interaction of IFRA3 with IL-15 receptor was assessed by pull-down and thermal shift assays.

Identification of polo-like kinase 1 as a therapeutic target in murine lupus.

Introduction: The signalling cascades that contribute to lupus pathogenesis are incompletely understood. We address this by using an unbiased activity-based kinome screen of murine lupus.

Methods: An unbiased activity-based kinome screen (ABKS) of 196 kinases was applied to two genetically different murine lupus strains.