IL6 and lymphoma: The TLR9/nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling induces the expression of IL-6 and/or IL-10, which activate STAT3 to restrain immunostimulation as a negative-feedback effect.12, 37, 38, 39 We further verified that the inhibition of STAT3 activity translates into reduced expression of downstream target proteins, such as BCL-XL and c-MYC, in human and mouse lymphoma cells.40, 41 The protein levels of BCL-XL and c-MYC were strongly downregulated by CpG(B)-STAT3dODN but not by the unconjugated STAT3dODN or control CpG(B)-scrODN in A20 and even more pronouncedly in OCI-Ly3 lymphoma (Figure 2B).