Interleukin-6 Targeted Therapies in Pediatric Rheumatology

Nergis AKAYa , Ümit GÜLa , Sezgin ŞAHİNa

aİstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Rheumatology, İstanbul, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
The usage and preference of selectively targeting biological agents in pediatric rheumatology setting are steadily increasing with the elucidation of the pathophysiology of rheumatological diseases. Uncontrolled inflammation in joints and/or many organ systems is responsible from the manifestations of rheumatological diseases. Upon stimulation of the innate and/or adaptive immune system, release of various cytokines leads to the development of clinical and laboratory findings. One of these cytokines is interleukin-6 (IL-6), which was first stated as a soluble factor released from T-cells in 1973. With the understanding the crucial role of IL-6 in chronic inflammation, researchers focused on IL-6 pathway to develop targeted treatments. Especially in the last two decades, many studies showed that humanized monoclonal antibody targeting IL-6R, namely tocilizumab, is effective in the treatment of systemic and polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, systemic large-vessel vasculitis (specifically Takayasu arteritis), juvenile scleroderma as well as in many other rare rheumatic diseases. In this article we tried to recap IL-6 targeted therapies in pediatric rheumatology.
Keywords: Arthritis; pediatric rheumatology; cytokine; inflammation; interleukin-6; tocilizumab

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