细胞因子是分泌或膜表达的分子，介导广泛的细胞功能，包括发育、分化、生长和存活。因此，细胞因子活性的调节在生理和病理上都非常重要。细胞因子和/或细胞因子受体工程正在广泛研究，以安全有效地调节细胞因子活性，以达到治疗效果。特别是对IL-2进行了大量工程，创造了不同的IL-2变体，对调节性T细胞显示不同的活性，潜在用于治疗自身免疫性疾病，或增强效应T细胞的抗肿瘤效果。此外，工程方法也被应用于许多其他细胞因子，如IL-10、干扰素和IL-1家族细胞因子，因为它们具有免疫抑制和/或抗病毒和抗肿瘤效果。在调节细胞因子的作用方面，采用的策略很广泛，包括改变细胞因子与其受体的亲和力，延长细胞因子在体内的半衰期和精细调节细胞因子的作用。该领域正迅速扩展，致力于开发改进的治疗方法以应对多种疾病。© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.

Cytokines are secreted or membrane-presented molecules that mediate broad cellular functions, including development, differentiation, growth and survival. Accordingly, the regulation of cytokine activity is extraordinarily important both physiologically and pathologically. Cytokine and/or cytokine receptor engineering is being widely investigated to safely and effectively modulate cytokine activity for therapeutic benefit. IL-2 in particular has been extensively engineered, to create IL-2 variants that differentially exhibit activities on regulatory T cells to potentially treat autoimmune disease versus effector T cells to augment antitumour effects. Additionally, engineering approaches are being applied to many other cytokines such as IL-10, interferons and IL-1 family cytokines, given their immunosuppressive and/or antiviral and anticancer effects. In modulating the actions of cytokines, the strategies used have been broad, including altering affinities of cytokines for their receptors, prolonging cytokine half-lives in vivo and fine-tuning cytokine actions. The field is rapidly expanding, with extensive efforts to create improved therapeutics for a range of diseases.© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.