Synergy and specificity in induction of gene activity by proinflammatory cytokines: Potential therapeutic targets

This review focuses on two important routes of gene activation mediated by proinflammatory cytokines, which serve as a paradigm for mechanisms of specificity and synergy in cytokine regulated gene activity: STAT (signal transducers and activators of transcription)-related gene activation and the pathways initiated by proinflammatory cytokines leading to the activation of the NF-kappa B family of transcriptional activators. The proinflammatory cytokine cascade is involved in both the normal immune response and in the pathogenesis of several disease states. An understanding of specificity and synergism in these pathways offers an opportunity to develop novel therapeutic drugs for the selective manipulation of these disease processes. Such potential targets are examined in this review.