A group of scientists have developed a targeted delivery platform that can induce anti-inflammatory cytokine expression in mouse lungs, which helps restrict tissue damage from respiratory infections without triggering systemic side effects. Full details are published in Science Immunology in a paper titled “Gene delivery of immunomodulatory cytokines to the lung preserves respiratory function during inflammatory challenge.” The study was led by scientists in the pathology department at the University of Cambridge working alongside collaborators elsewhere. Together, they “developed a gene delivery system to express anti-inflammatory cytokines in the lung, which reestablishes local immune homeostasis without triggering systemic effects,” according to details provided in the paper. Specifically, they used an adeno-associated virus cargo system (AAV6.2-CC10) to induce “production of interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA), and IL-10 in situ in the lung microenvironment.” They accomplished this “with no detectable expression or immunological deviation in the peripheral immune system.” According to the developers, their work could lead to new therapeutics that control inflammation following several viral infections, which has been linked to higher mortality rates in cases of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. Prolonged inflammation during a viral infection also increases the chances that patients could contract bacterial and fungal infections. Importantly, the approach provides a way to harness the “therapeutic potential of immunomodulatory cytokines” which to date have had limited success as biologic drugs due in part to the short half-lives of cytokines as well as the risks of multiorgan effects. “This tool has been proven to deliver sustained and localized expression…
