白细胞介素2(IL-2)的主要问题是毒性很大,但美国纽约医院Cornell医疗中心的研究人员则发现,在治疗艾滋病时,IL-2的毒性可能并不成问题.首先发现IL-2的Smith发现,超低剂量IL-2可支持艾滋病患者的免疫系统,而无任何毒副作用.IL-2可与淋巴细胞上的受体结合,引起细胞增殖.但是淋巴细胞具有两类不同的IL-2受体.一类受体可与极低浓度的IL-2结合,并且这种高亲和力IL-2受体主要在活化的T细胞(HIV的靶细胞)上表达.该受体与IL-2结合时所需IL-2浓度仅为另一受体的1/100. The main problem with interleukin 2 (IL-2) is its toxicity, but researchers at Cornell Medical Center in New York City Hospital found that the toxicity of IL-2 may not be a problem when it comes to treating AIDS.Firstly, IL-2 Smith found that ultra-low doses of IL-2 can support AIDS patients without any side effects of the immune system.IL-2 can bind to receptors on lymphocytes, causing cell proliferation.However, lymphocytes have two different types of IL -2 receptors. A class of receptors binds to very low concentrations of IL-2 and this high affinity IL-2 receptor is mainly expressed on activated T cells (target cells of HIV), which binds to IL -2 required for the binding of IL-2 concentration of only another one-hundredth of the receptor.