细胞因子是免疫系统的介质，对于免疫反应的维持、发展和解决至关重要。有益的免疫反应依赖于复杂、相互依赖的信号传导和调控事件网络，其中每个细胞因子都会影响其他细胞因子的合成和释放。由于这些信号传导网络的紊乱与多种疾病有关，细胞因子作为诊断、预后和精准治疗相关的生物标志物引起了相当大的兴趣。然而，目前个体细胞因子检测的价值有限，因为通常忽略了更广泛的免疫反应背景。本研究的目的是确定与不同疾病相关的特定细胞因子信号模式。对于临床上被考虑需要进行细胞因子分析的已知或疑似患有某种疾病的患者，对临床细胞因子多重检测进行了无偏聚类分析。鉴定出了七个共表达细胞因子的聚类，代表着免疫激活的常见模式。还鉴定出了细胞因子聚类的常见表达谱，并初步与特定疾病或疾病类别的关联性。这些发现增加了我们对炎症性、自身免疫和肿瘤性疾病患者临床表现背后的免疫环境的理解，从而有助于改善诊断，并确定基于证据的治疗靶点。版权所有© 2023年 Polley、Latham、Choi、Buhler、Fritzler和Fritzler。

Cytokines are mediators of the immune system that are essential for the maintenance, development and resolution of immune responses. Beneficial immune responses depend on complex, interdependent networks of signaling and regulatory events in which individual cytokines influence the production and release of others. Since disruptions in these signaling networks are associated with a wide spectrum of diseases, cytokines have gained considerable interest as diagnostic, prognostic and precision therapy-relevant biomarkers. However, currently individual cytokines testing has limited value because the wider immune response context is often overlooked. The aim of this study was to identify specific cytokine signaling patterns associated with different diseases.Unbiased clustering analyses were performed on a clinical cytokine multiplex test using a cohort of human plasma specimens drawn from individuals with known or suspected diseases for which cytokine profiling was considered clinically indicated by the attending physician.Seven clusters of co-expressing cytokines were identified, representing common patterns of immune activation. Common expression profiles of the cytokine clusters and preliminary associations of these profiles with specific diseases or disease categories were also identified. These findings increase our understanding of the immune environments underlying the clinical presentations of patients of inflammatory, autoimmune and neoplastic diseases, which could then improve diagnoses and the identification of evidence-based treatment targets.Copyright © 2023 Polley, Latham, Choi, Buhler, Fritzler and Fritzler.