MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cytokines and Soluble Mediators in Immunity
This article is part of the Research TopicRegulation of Cytokine and Growth Factor Signaling in Health and DiseaseView all 9 articles
Interleukins in Community-Acquired Pneumonia: From Biomarkers to Precision Medicine
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hospital of the First Mobile Corps of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force, Dingzhou, China
- 2Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
- 3Characteristic Medical Center of People's Armed Police Force, Tianjin, China
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Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is still a leading cause of death due to infection globally, yet precise severity assessment remains a significant clinical problem. More than any other group of cytokines, interleukins are central to the regulation of inflammation and shed light on this intricate pathology. In the present review we summarize the biological and clinical characteristics of some of the principal interleukins (ILs) in CAP, classified primarily according to their physiological activity as pro-inflammatory (IL-2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-12), anti-inflammatory (IL-7, IL-10 and IL-37), dual-action (IL-4 and IL-17), and emerging factors (IL-3, IL-27 and IL-33). Additionally, recent multimodal approaches are discussed such as combining cytokines with organ dysfunction parameters (MR-proADM) or revealing host-response patterns to inform antibiotic and corticosteroid management. We propose that the field needs to transition to immunological endotyping, multi-omics (integrating genetics and lung microbiome), and artificial intelligence (AI) models based on dynamic patient data to achieve precision medicine in CAP management.
Keywords: biomarkers, Community-acquired pneumonia, Interleukins, Multimodal application, precision medicine
Received: 24 Dec 2025; Accepted: 06 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhang, Zhang, Geng, Wei, Liu and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hanyu Shi
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