title: IL-6 during viral-induced chronic autoimmune myocarditis.
abstract: Interleukin (IL)-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine that plays a key role in a wide variety of diseases. Based on a number of adjuvant-induced experimental models, IL-6 is critical to the development of autoimmune diseases including experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, adjuvant-induced arthritis, and experimental autoimmune myocarditis. However, whether it plays a pathogenic role in viral-induced autoimmune myocarditis has been less well defined. While experimental models of myocarditis have clearly linked IL-6 to the generation of pathogenic autoreactive T cells, IL-6 has exhibited a protective role in autoimmune disease development in viral-induced disease models. As pathogen infection has been linked to the majority of myocarditis patients, treatments aimed at decreasing IL-6 levels in the hopes of limiting the autoimmune response run the risk of increasing disease severity.
authors.affiliation: Department Microbiology and Immunology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Maya C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Poffenberger
authors.forename: Marc S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Horwitz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004681:Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D020381:Interleukin-17 / Q000378:metabolism; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008954:Models, Biological; D009205:Myocarditis / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000150:complications*
chemical_list: D020381:Interleukin-17; D015850:Interleukin-6