Interleukin-1β and the Autoinflammatory Diseases

Interleukin-1 is a highly active proinflammatory cytokine that causes not only fever, anorexia, and other constitutional symptoms but also tissue damage and remodeling. All these effects — including joint destruction, tissue remodeling, and elevated levels of markers of systemic inflammation — can be reversed or reduced by specific blockade of interleukin-1 activity.Interleukin-1 induces the expression of several other proinflammatory genes, but cytokine-mediated inflammation can also evoke the expression of genes encoding antiinflammatory proteins that nonspecifically suppress inflammation. In the case of interleukin-1, however, a particular molecule that specifically inhibits interleukin-1 activity is induced. The 11 members of the interleukin-1 . . .