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The F1000 Faculty Reviews channel was launched last month, containing exclusively reviews written by members of the F1000 Faculty (previously published under the F1000Prime Reports journal). Vijay Kuchroo and Youjin Lee (both from Harvard Medical School) were one of the first authors to publish articles in the channel. In this interview below, we asked them to tell us about their review on defining the functional states of Th17 cells, titled “Defining the functional states of Th17 cells“.

 

Your article was one of the first to be published for the F1000 Faculty Reviews channel–can you briefly summarize what your article is about?
Our article can be summed up as a review about our current understanding of Th17 cell heterogeneity in autoimmune inflammation. While Th17 cells are critical for host defense against pathogens and fungal infections, they are considered one of the main drivers of autoimmunity. Through recent advances in high throughput genomic sequencing, it is now clear that Th17 cells are not identical in function and that there is extensive heterogeneity of Th17 cells based on their expression profiles. Based on the interaction between the transcriptional and cytokine regulators, our lab has revealed that Th17 cells may exist in different functional states, which ultimately affect their functional diversity.

Why did you decide to write for Faculty Reviews?
We were invited to write the review and thought that this would be a good opportunity to publish in F1000, which is very discerning in reviewing the best papers that are published in the field of autoimmunity.

What makes the topic and your review timely?
The reason the review is timely is because a number of drug companies are targeting this pathway for the treatment of multiple autoimmune diseases. While neutralizing IL-17 has been widely successful in psoriasis, in IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), another autoimmune disease, the IL-17 antagonists had either no effect or exacerbated the disease. This raises the issue of why there is so much difference in disease outcome. Our article addresses this issue showing that not all Th17 cells are pathogenic. Initial reports indicated that Th17 cells are highly pathogenic and disease inducing, but it is now clear that Th17 cells can also be non-inflammatory and in some cases required for tissue protection and maintenance. The review attempts to illustrate and reconcile various disparate reports and explains why some of the Th17 cells might be essential for mediating tissue homeostasis.

F1000Research is an open-access publishing platform, so your article is highly accessible to readers worldwide. What difference does open access make to your field and science in general?
Open access allows for our article to reach a wider audience and gives us an accessible platform to share our research findings and ideas.

How has your overall experience been as an author for F1000 Faculty Reviews?
This was our first time publishing an article with open peer review. Overall, it has been a wonderful experience publishing with F1000Research.

Would you submit another review for F1000 Faculty Reviews if you were asked to in the future?
Yes, we would be happy to submit another review for F1000 Faculty Reviews.