Blood levels of interleukin-17 family members in healthy individuals and various diseases

Interleukin-17 (IL-17) family of cytokines and receptors plays important roles in host defense, inflammation and autoimmunity, and cancer. This study re-analyzed a pan-disease blood proteomics dataset containing one healthy population (n = 825) and 59 disease populations (n = 5227) classified into cardiovascular, metabolic, cancer, psychiatric, autoimmune, infection, and pediatric classes. Dataset of IL-17A, IL-17C, IL-17D, IL-17F, IL-17RA, and IL-17RB were retrieved from the published report and re-analyzed focusing on comparisons between diseases and healthy people. We found that IL-17A and IL-17RA blood levels were increased in 55 diseases compared to healthy people. IL-17C, IL-17D, IL-17F, and IL-17RB levels were increased in some diseases but decreased in other diseases. While it was expected that IL-17A, IL-17C, IL-17D, and IL=17F levels were frequently increased in infection diseases, it was surprising that IL-17RA and IL-17RB levels were remarkably increased in pediatric tumors. Future studies will investigate the roles of IL-17RA and IL-17RB in the pathogenesis of pediatric tumors.