A Nature Reviews Immunology Focus on Cytokines & Cytokine Therapies published this month (June 2007) is freely accessible online for six months. Cytokines act as key communicators for immune cells; maintaining a delicate balance in the level of these communicators is vital for health — in many chronic diseases, this balance is disrupted. Thus, therapeutic targeting of cytokine pathways promises great hope for patients suffering from chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

This Focus issue of Nature Reviews Immunology highlights the latest advances in cytokine research and the application of these findings for clinical intervention. It includes the following articles by leaders in the field:

Cytokines in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis

Iain B. McInnes and Georg Schett

TGFb signalling in control of T-cell-mediated self-reactivity

Yuri P. Rubtsov and Alexander Y. Rudensky

SOCS proteins, cytokine signalling and immune regulation

Akihiko Yoshimura, Tetsuji Naka and Masato Kubo

These reviews, other articles and related material can be found at the Focus website.