Effect of 5‐fluorouracil on interleukin‐1 and interleukin‐2 receptor expression

We have studied the effect of anticancer drug 5‐Fluorouracil on the expression of human Interleukin‐1 and Interleukin‐2 receptor. In this report, we show that 5‐Fluorouracil increases the Interleukin‐1 expression upto 2.66 folds without significantly affecting the levels of surface expression of p55 IL‐2 receptor on human Peripheral blood mononuclear cells, CD4 and CD8 T cells. On contrary, the drug decreases the levels of Interferon‐γ secretion by upto 42%. In earlier studies we have shown that 5‐Fluorouracil increases the IL‐2 expression both at mRNA and protein levels. Taken together, 5‐Fluorouracil differentially affects the expression of Interleukin‐1, Interferon‐γ and Interleukin‐2 receptor.