Potent therapeutic target of inflammation, virus and tumor: focus on interleukin-27

• This review focuses on mechanisms of individual IL-27 and IL-27 receptor subunits.
• This review discusses the potential role of IL-27 as a clinical therapeutic target.
• This review discusses advances of IL-27 regarding inflammation.
• This review discusses advances of IL-27 regarding virus infections.
• This review discusses advances of IL-27 regarding tumors.

Interleukin (IL)-27 is an important pleiotropic immunological regulator for having dual effects on the immune responses. Several distinct findings have been highlighted that in certain conditions, neutralizing IL-27 or its subunit IL-27p28 might be a useful strategy to limit inflammation. Recently more insights have revealed that IL-27 could also exert potent inhibitory functions in some other immune circumstances including virus infection and tumor immunity. In this review, we describe IL-27 receptor subunits and the mechanisms of individual IL-27, and summarize the advances of their preclinical application trials. In addition, the potential role of IL-27 as a clinical therapeutic target will also be discussed.