IL-7 and lymphopenia

Abstract

Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is a growth and anti-apoptotic factor for T-lymphocytes, with potential for clinical use in the treatment of immunodeficiencies due to loss of T-cells. Lymphopenia induced by disease (HIV infection, hemodialysis or Idiopathic CD4+ lymphopenia) or by treatment (high dose chemotherapy or depleting antibodies) for cancer or auto-immune diseases results in increased circulating levels of IL-7 which decline with T-cell recovery, however, the mechanism of such response remains to be elucidated. Furthermore, IL-7 is a major player in the regulation of peripheral T-cell homeostasis and as such is an important candidate cytokine for therapy aimed at improving T-cell reconstitution following lymphopenia. Anti- IL-7 is on the other hand proposed to treat conditions where IL-7 may play a more direct role in pathogenesis such as autoimmune disease like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis or Inflammatory Bowel disease.