Cytokines and
cytokine signaling pathways are crucial for regulating cellular functions, including cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and cell death.
Cytokines regulate physiological processes such as immune responses and maintain immune homeostasis, and they also mediate pathological conditions such as
autoimmune diseases and
cancer. Hence, the precise control of the expression of
cytokines and the transduction of
cytokine signals is tightly regulated at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. In particular, post-transcriptional regulation at the level of mRNA stability is critical for coordinating
cytokine expression and
cytokine signaling. Numerous
cytokine transcripts contain AU-rich elements (AREs), whereas transcripts encoding numerous components of
cytokine signaling pathways contain GU-rich elements (GREs). AREs and GREs are mRNA decay elements that mediate rapid mRNA degradation. Through ARE- and GRE-mediated decay mechanisms, immune cells selectively and specifically regulate
cytokine networks during immune responses. Aberrant expression and stability of ARE- or GRE-containing transcripts that encode
cytokines or components of
cytokine signaling pathways are observed in disease states, including
cancer. In this review, we focus on the role of AREs and GREs in regulating
cytokine expression and signal transduction at the level of mRNA stability.