Interleukin-10 signaling

IL10-deficient mice exhibited inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other exaggerated inflammatory responses indicating a critical role for IL10 in limiting inflammatory responses. Dysregulation of IL10 is linked with susceptibility to numerous infectious and autoimmune diseases in humans and mouse models.

IL10 signaling is initiated by binding of homodimeric IL10 to the extracellular domains of two adjoining IL10RA molecules. This tetramer then binds two IL10RB chains. IL10RB cannot bind to IL10 unless bound to IL10RA; binding of IL10 to IL10RA without the co-presence of IL10RB fails to initiate signal transduction.

IL10 binding activates the receptor-associated Janus tyrosine kinases, JAK1 and TYK2, which are constitutively bound to IL10R1 and IL10R2 respectively. In the classic model of receptor activation assembly of the receptor complex is believed to enable JAK1/TYK2 to phosphorylate and activate each other. Alternatively the binding of IL10 may cause conformational changes that allow the pseudokinase inhibitory domain of one JAK kinase to move away from the kinase domain of the other JAK within the receptor dimer-JAK complex, allowing the two kinase domains to interact and trans-activate.

The activated JAK kinases phosphorylate the intracellular domains of the IL10R1 chains on specific tyrosine residues. These phosphorylated tyrosine residues and their flanking peptide sequences serve as temporary docking sites for the latent, cytosolic, transcription factor, STAT3. STAT3 transiently docks on the IL10R1 chain via its SH2 domain, and is in turn tyrosine phosphorylated by the receptor-associated JAKs. Once activated, it dissociates from the receptor, dimerizes with other STAT3 molecules, and translocates to the nucleus where it binds with high affinity to STAT-binding elements (SBEs) in the promoters of IL-10-inducible genes.