Tang Prize Laureates Reflect on the Breakthroughs Made Possible by Cytokine Research
PR93292
TAIPEI, Nov. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --
Following the inspiring opening speech, "Future Perspective of Cancer
Immunotherapy", delivered by Nobel Prize and Tang Prize laureate Prof. Tasuku
Honjo at the 14th Asia Pacific Federation of Pharmacologist Conference (APFP)
on November 26, the 2020 Tang Prize Laureate's Lecture for Biopharmaceutical
Science, co-organized by the Tang Prize Foundation and The Pharmacological
Society in Taiwan, took place at the 14th APFP at 1:30 p.m.(GMT+8) on November
27. Co-hosted by Dr. Wen-Chang Chang, chair of Taipei Medical University's
board of directors, and Dr. Yun Yen, chair professor at Taipei Medical
University, this special session featured lectures delivered by three winners
for the 2020 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science, Drs. Charles Dinarello,
Marc Feldmann, and Tadamitsu Kishimoto, providing valuable informaiton on the
role cytokines play in inflammation and the COVID-19 disease as well as
possible treatments.
The first lecture by Dr. Dinarello, titled "Interleukin-1: The Prime Mediator
of Systemic and Local Inflammation", began with his purification of leukocytic
pryogen from human white blood cells in 1971. It then took him six years to
identify two fever-producing molecules, later named IL-1α and IL-1β.
In 1977, the research outcomes were published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. The second speaker, Dr. Feldmann, shared his
views on "Translating Molecular Insights in Autoimmunity into Effective
Therapy". The emphasis of the first half of his lecture was on how he
discovered that anti-TNF can be effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis.
During the second half of the talk, he informed us that TNF has two different
targets: TNF receptor-1(TNFR1), which drives inflammation, and TNF receptor 2,
which does the very opposite. Therefore, they are "in the process of generating
tools" and has already blocked TNFR1 without change the function of regulatory
T cells. Presenting the third lecture on the topic "Interleukin-6: From
Arthritis to CAR-T and COVID-19", Dr. Kishimoto drew the audience's attention
to how IL-6 was discovered, why IL-6 is a pleiotropic molecule, and responsible
for both antibody production as well as inflammation induction. He also shed
light on IL-6's effects on autoimmune diseases and how IL-6 can trigger
cytokine storms.
To help the public gain a better understanding of the latest progress made in
biomedical sciences, the Tang Prize Foundation will make these three lectures
available on its official website(https://www.tang-prize.org) afterwards.
SOURCE: The Tang Prize Foundation
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