Unlocking IL-33: New Insights into Tumor Immunity
Byeong Hoon Kang1,2, Heung Kyu Lee2
1Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea.
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IL-33, a member of the IL-1 cytokine family, is constitutively expressed in the nucleus of various cell types. As an alarmin, IL-33 is released upon tissue damage and activates immune cell populations through its receptor, suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (ST2). Given that ST2 is expressed on diverse immune cells involved in both type 1 and type 2 immunity, IL-33 exerts pleiotropic effects on immune responses. In the tumor microenvironment (TME), IL-33 plays a dual role, promoting both protumor and antitumor TME. In this review, we summarize general characteristics of IL-33 and its immunological functions, with particular emphasis on its role in tumor immunity. Furthermore, we discuss recent advances in utilizing IL-33 in cancer immunotherapies and propose IL-33 as a potential candidate for the development of new cancer therapies.
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