Analyzing IL-31 and the Benefits of Blocking It

So, when we think about different cytokines, we have to remember whether we're talking about interleukin 4, interleukin 13, interleukin 31, IL-31 or other cytokines or different mediators. They're there normally for a physiologic purpose, but in certain disease states, there's dysregulation, where you may have increase in a certain cytokine or selection of cytokines that are now leading to downstream changes that lead to the manifestations of a specific disease, but we have to remember that they're normal physiologically. So, with interleukin 31, IL-31, it's very involved with itching. It had that reputation of being the itch cytokine, so if there was too much of its activity and you can block it, you would expect that you're going to help itching. That's certainly been true across a variety of different disease states, but interleukin-31 also contributes to some other characteristics.

It can impair the skin barrier function. It could lead to increased fibrosis and thickening of the skin. So, it's involved in a variety of other pathways that can lead to manifestations in other disease states. So, it doesn't only have one function, and it really depends on the other collection of what's going on that defines the particular disease. For example, you can have someone that has prurigo nodularis, that doesn't necessarily have an increase in the cytokines that lead to atopic dermatitis, but blocking the interleukin 31 will still help that prurigo nodularis in that patient. So, everybody's a little bit different. Everybody has their own genetic predisposition and their own cytokine pattern. Interleukin 31 crosses over into a variety of different pathways, so it can be helpful in many different conditions.