Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42136682›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in immunology2026

From

Junping Yang, Yan Wang, Jie Huang, Jing Zhang, Ying Xie

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in immunology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Junping Yang *Department of General Practice, Wuhu Second People's Hospital, Wuhu, Anhui, China.
Yan Wang *Department of General Practice, Wuhu Second People's Hospital, Wuhu, Anhui, China.
Jie HuangDepartment of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital and Clinical Medical College of Chengdu University, Chengdu, China.
Jing ZhangUniversity of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Chengdu, China.
Ying XieDepartment of Orthopedics, Affiliated Chuzhou Hospital of Anhui Medical University (The First People's Hospital of Chuzhou), Chuzhou, Anhui, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease in which dysregulated interleukin-6 (IL-6) signaling through the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) plays a central pathogenic role. Although monoclonal antibodies targeting this pathway are clinically effective, their use is limited by parenteral administration, high cost, and systemic immunosuppression. Peptide-based inhibitors represent a complementary strategy for modulating cytokine-receptor interactions, offering advantages in design flexibility and manufacturability. Recent advances in immunoinformatics and artificial intelligence (AI) facilitate the rational identification of peptide candidates with favorable safety profiles. Methods: We developed an integrated AI-assisted discovery pipeline incorporating immunoinformatics-based safety screening (toxicity, allergenicity, and antigenicity prediction), structural modeling, molecular docking with MM/GBSA rescoring, and 100-ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to identify IL-6R-targeting peptides. Seven candidate peptides (P01-P07) were prioritized based on predicted safety, binding energetics, and structural stability. Lead candidates were experimentally evaluated using competitive ELISA assays for IL-6/IL-6R binding and cell-based assays measuring IL-6-induced STAT3 phosphorylation. Results: Computational analyses consistently identified peptide P01 as the top-ranked candidate, exhibiting stable binding conformations, persistent hydrogen bonding at the IL-6R interface, low RMSD and RMSF values during MD simulations, and the most favorable MM/GBSA binding free energy. Conclusion: This study establishes a safety-focused, AI-driven peptide discovery framework integrating in silico prioritization with experimental validation. Peptide P01 represents a tractable early-stage IL-6R antagonist that provides a foundation for future structure-guided optimization and development as a complementary therapeutic modality for IL-6-driven inflammatory diseases.

Indexed as

Arthritis, RheumatoidInterleukin-6PeptidesReceptors, Interleukin-6Signal TransductionComputer SimulationDrug DiscoveryHumansImmunoinformaticsMolecular Docking SimulationMolecular Dynamics SimulationSTAT3 Transcription FactorIL6 protein, humanIL6R protein, humanInterleukin-6PeptidesReceptors, Interleukin-6STAT3 Transcription Factorartificial intelligenceimmunoinformaticsinterleukin-6 receptormolecular dockingmolecular dynamicspeptide therapeuticsrheumatoid arthritisSTAT3 signaling

Identifiers

PMID42136682
PMCPMC13168006

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.