Artificially, IL-30 can form a heterodimer with p40 β chain of IL-12 creating novel recombinant protein p28/p40 that is biologically active, which suggest the α and β chains of cytokines from IL-12 family may form different heterodimers in nature. This recombinant protein has suppressive effect on Th17 cells that comes from inhibiting the activation of STAT1 and STAT3 pathways, which are normally induced through gp130 receptor by IL-6 and IL-27. p28/p40 also inhibits the expansion of Th1 cells. Both of those functions could potentially be beneficial in treatment of some autoimmune diseases.
