A novel class of negative regulators of interleukin-6 signalling

细胞因子是一种蛋白质信使，可以激活免疫系统对抗感染。当它们过于活跃时，它们会引起炎症和自身免疫性疾病，因此它们的活动需要严格控制。我们发现了一个新的调节因子家族(3月蛋白)，它通过引导细胞因子受体进行破坏来抑制细胞因子的活性。我们的目标是详细了解这一过程是如何工作的，以及在体内3月蛋白在改善自身免疫性疾病方面的作用。

Cytokines are protein messengers that activate the immune system to fight infections. When they are too active they cause inflammation and autoimmune diseases so their activity needs to be tightly controlled. We have discovered a new family of regulators (the MARCH proteins) that inhibit cytokine activity by routing cytokine receptors for destruction. We aim to understand how this process works in detail and the role of MARCH proteins in vivo in ameliorating autoimmune diseases.