{"doi":"10.1111/cns.14550","title":"Emerging functions and therapeutic targets of IL‐38 in central nervous system diseases","abstract":"Interleukin (IL)-38 is a newly discovered cytokine of the IL-1 family, which binds various receptors (i.e., IL-36R, IL-1 receptor accessory protein-like 1, and IL-1R1) in the central nervous system (CNS). The hallmark physiological function of IL-38 is competitive binding to IL-36R, as does the IL-36R antagonist. Emerging research has shown that IL-38 is abnormally expressed in the serum and brain tissue of patients with ischemic stroke (IS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), suggesting that IL-38 may play an important role in neurological diseases. Important advances include that IL-38 alleviates neuromyelitis optica disorder (NMOD) by inhibiting Th17 expression, improves IS by protecting against atherosclerosis via regulating immune cells and inflammation, and reduces IL-1β and CXCL8 release through inhibiting human microglial activity post-ASD. In contrast, IL-38 mRNA is markedly increased and is mainly expressed in phagocytes in spinal cord injury (SCI). IL-38 ablation attenuated SCI by reducing immune cell infiltration. However, the effect and underlying mechanism of IL-38 in CNS diseases remain inadequately characterized. In this review, we summarize the biological characteristics, pathophysiological role, and potential mechanisms of IL-38 in CNS diseases (e.g., NMOD, Alzheimer's disease, ASD, IS, TBI, and SCI), aiming to explore the therapeutic potential of IL-38 in the prevention and treatment of CNS diseases.","journal":"CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics","year":2024,"id":437795,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":10,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9562,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1247289,"name":"Luwei Cai","orcid":"0000-0002-2045-6545","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247290,"name":"Yulu Wu","orcid":"0009-0001-3632-3691","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247291,"name":"Min Jiang","orcid":"0000-0002-0839-7992","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":389934,"name":"Yidan Zhang","orcid":"0000-0001-6691-5244","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247292,"name":"Wenjing Ren","orcid":"0000-0001-9428-9893","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247740,"name":"Yirui Song","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":895994,"name":"Lili Li","orcid":"0000-0002-0292-5889","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247741,"name":"Ziguang Lei","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247742,"name":"Youzhuang Wu","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247293,"name":"Luwen Zhu","orcid":"0000-0003-4638-7004","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247294,"name":"Jing Li","orcid":"0000-0003-0218-8169","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247295,"name":"Dongya Li","orcid":"0000-0002-6016-4010","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":545815,"name":"Guohong Li","orcid":"0000-0003-2873-3794","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1072072,"name":"Chengliang Luo","orcid":"0000-0002-2055-3660","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247296,"name":"Luyang Tao","orcid":"0000-0002-6598-1730","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295774,"name":"Yuan Gao","orcid":"0000-0002-9510-6515","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":180,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:00:34.490087Z","pmid":"38334236","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}