ArticleCancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII2008
IL-21 induces in vivo immune activation of NK cells and CD8(+) T cells in patients with metastatic melanoma and renal cell carcinoma.
Article in Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 114 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Multivariate evaluation of pharmacological responses in early clinical trials - a study of rIL-21 in the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2010Trial
- IL-21 enhances the cytotoxicity of intratumoral CD8+ T cells, improving radiation efficacy.JCI insight · 2026Article
- Beyond priming: a sequential, feedback-guided adjuvant framework for therapeutic cancer peptide vaccines in immunologically cold tumors.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Tumor Microenvironment Onmyoji: Cytokines with Dual Protumor and Antitumor Roles.Cancer communications (London, England) · 2026Review
- Temporal molecular remodeling of T cells informs their possible adaptation in 4T1 tumors.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- Molecular Plasticity of T Cells Informs Their Possible Adaptation in 4T1 Tumors.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- STAT signaling pathways in immune cells and their associated mechanisms in cancer pathogenesis.BioImpacts : BI · 2025Review
- Th17-related cytokines and chemokines are associated with immune dysregulation and severity in schizophrenia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The effects of interleukin-21 in the biology of transplant rejection.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Prognostic Impact of Acute and Chronic Inflammatory Interleukin Signatures in the Tumor Microenvironment of Early Breast Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- The paradoxical role of cytokines and chemokines at the tumor microenvironment: a comprehensive review.European journal of medical research · 2024Review
- Therapeutic potential of interleukin-21 in cancer.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Promising prognostic value of Transglutaminase type 2 and its correlation with tumor-infiltrating immune cells in skin cutaneous melanoma.Cell death discovery · 2022Article
- Overcoming tumor resistance mechanisms in CAR-NK cell therapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Clinical Application of Cytokines in Cancer Immunotherapy.Drug design, development and therapy · 2021Review
- A phase I clinical trial of dTCApFs, a derivative of a novel human hormone peptide, for the treatment of advanced/metastatic solid tumors.Molecular and clinical oncology · 2018Article
- IL-21 Therapy Controls Immune Activation and Maintains Antiviral CD8AIDS research and human retroviruses · 2017Article
- IL-21/anti-Tim1/CD40 ligand promotes B10 activity in vitro and alleviates bone loss in experimental periodontitis in vivo.Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular basis of disease · 2017Article
- The circadian gene Arntl2 on distal mouse chromosome 6 controls thymocyte apoptosis.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeHuman interleukin-21 (IL-21) is a class I cytokine previously reported in clinical studies on immune responsive cancers. Here we report the effects of systemic IL-21 therapy on the immune system in two phase 1 trials with this novel cytokine. EXPERIMENTAL
designRecombinant IL-21 was administered by intravenous bolus injection at dose levels from 1 to 100 microg/kg using two planned treatment regimens: thrice weekly for 6 weeks (3/week); or once daily for five consecutive days followed by nine dose-free days (5 + 9). The following biomarkers were studied in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) during treatment: phosphorylation of STAT3, alterations in the composition of leukocyte subsets, ex vivo cytotoxicity, expression of effector molecules in enriched CD8(+) T cells and CD56(+) NK cells by quantitative RT-PCR, and gene array profiling of CD8(+) T cells.
resultsEffects of IL-21 were observed at all dose levels. In the 5 + 9 regimen IL-21 induced a dose dependent decrease in circulating NK cells and T cells followed by a return to baseline in resting periods. In both CD8(+) T cells and CD56(+) NK cells we found up-regulation of perforin and granzyme B mRNA. In addition, full transcriptome analysis of CD8(+) T cells displayed changes in several transcripts associated with increased cell cycle progression, cellular motility, and immune activation. Finally, cytotoxicity assays showed that IL-21 enhanced the ability of NK cells to kill sensitive targets ex vivo.
conclusionsIL-21 was biologically active at all dose levels administered with evidence of in vivo NK cell and CD8(+) T cell activation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.