The Future of the Cytokine Discipline

The study of cytokines has evolved from the detection of functional activities present in tissue culture supernatants to the characterization of the three-dimensional molecular structures of the cytokines and their receptors. Investigators studying cytokines need to have specialized expertise in using cytokine assays, assessing their receptor interactions, signal transduction, gene activation, and biological effects, and in the therapeutic utilization of agonists and antagonists. Cytokinology can therefore be considered a discipline. In this article, I have considered studies leading to the identification of novel cytokines, potential producers of cytokine mimics such as viruses and the microbiome, and the complex interactions of the cytokine network with our vital functions. Our ever-increasing success in using cytokines and, in particular, cytokine inhibitors therapeutically suggest that cytokinology will eventually become an independent discipline.