COVID-19 Spotlight: Human Interleukin 6

Human Interleukin 6 (also known as MGI2-A; MGI2A; HGF; BSF2; HSF; IFNB2; B-Cell Stimulatory Factor-2; Hybridoma/Plasmacytoma Growth Factor; Hepatocyte Stimulating Factor; Cytotoxic T-Cell Differentiation Factor) is a cytokine involved in inflammation and primarily generated at areas of inflammation in the body, either acute or chronic.¹ An IL6 response can be either pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory, depending on where activation and signaling occurs; in monocytes or macrophages, the response is pro-inflammatory, and in muscle tissue, it is anti-inflammatory.² As IL6 is involved in the inflammation response and auto-immune process, it can be found in response to a variety of different diseases including diabetes,³ rheumatoid arthritis⁴, and Alzheimer’s disease.⁵ Recently, COVID-19 (caused by SARS-COV-2), has been shown to induce Cytokine Release Syndrome, or a ‘Cytokine Storm,’ in many patients, in which IL6 has an important role.⁶ 

Many patients critically ill with COVID-19 die as a result of an excessive immune system response, in particular, the excessive release of cytokines that can result in systemic inflammation in the body and multi-system organ failure.⁷ This dysfunction of the immune system has been shown to be driven by IL6.⁷ The two important features of this immune system dysfunction are an excess of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the dysregulation of lymphocytes.⁷ As IL6 has a key role in indicating and initiating immune system dysfunction in COVID-19 patients, anti-IL6 or IL6 blocker drugs have been recently used in clinical trials to help mitigate the inflammatory response.^6,8 

Reddot Biotech is pleased to offer a Human Interleukin 6 ELISA kit in both our traditional and Ready-To-Use formats. Our Human IL6 kits have a picogram range (detection range 7.812-500pg/mL; sensitivity 3.11pg/mL) and are suitable for use with a wide variety of different sample types. For more information and to see the product manual, visit our product pages for RDR-IL6-Hu and RD-IL6-Hu. For any other questions, please feel free to contact us.

References and further reading:

1. IL6 interleukin 6 [Homo sapiens (human)] - Gene - NCBI. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/g...
2. Brandt, C., & Pedersen, B. K. (2010). The role of exercise-induced myokines in muscle homeostasis and the defense against chronic diseases. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, 2010.
3. Kristiansen, O. P., & Mandrup-Poulsen, T. (2005). Interleukin-6 and diabetes: the good, the bad, or the indifferent?. Diabetes, 54(suppl 2), S114-S124.
4. Nishimoto, N. (2006). Interleukin-6 in rheumatoid arthritis. Current opinion in rheumatology, 18(3), 277-281.
5. Swardfager, W., Lanctôt, K., Rothenburg, L., Wong, A., Cappell, J., & Herrmann, N. (2010). A meta-analysis of cytokines in Alzheimer's disease. Biological psychiatry, 68(10), 930-941.
6. Magro, G. (2020). SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: is interleukin-6 (IL-6) the'culprit lesion'of ARDS onset? What is there besides Tocilizumab? SGP130Fc. Cytokine: X, 100029.
7. Giamarellos-Bourboulis, E. J., Netea, M. G., Rovina, N., Akinosoglou, K., Antoniadou, A., Antonakos, N., ... & Ntaganou, M. (2020). Complex immune dysregulation in COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory failure. Cell host & microbe.
8. Tocilizumab in COVID-19 Pneumonia (TOCIVID-19) - Full Text View. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2...