Effect of 5-fluorouracil on interleukin-1 and interleukin-2 receptor expression

We have studied the effect of anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil on the expression of human Interleukin-1 and Interleukin-2 receptor. In this report, we show that 5-Fluorouracil increases the Interleukin-1 expression upto 2.66 folds without significantly affecting the levels of surface expression of p55 IL-2 receptor on human Peripheral blood mononuclear cells, CD4 and CD8 T cells. On contrary, the drug decreases the levels of Interferon-gamma secretion by upto 42%. In earlier studies we have shown that 5-fluorouracil increases the IL-2 expression both at mRNA and protein levels. Taken together, 5-fluorouracil differentially affects the expression of Interleukin-1, Interferon-gamma and Interleukin-2 receptor.