Laboratory of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 305-701, Korea.
Immune Netw. 2013 Feb;13(1):25-9. doi: 10.4110/in.2013.13.1.25. Epub 2013 Feb 28.
Ribavirin is an antiviral drug used in combination with pegylated interferon-α (IFN-α) for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Recently, ribavirin was reported to inhibit the suppressive activity of regulatory T (Treg) cells. In the present study, we re-evaluated the effect of ribavirin on Foxp3(+)CD4(+)CD25(+) Treg cells from normal donors. First, we examined the expression of CTLA-4 and CD39, which are known to play a role in the suppressive function of Treg cells. We found that ribavirin treatment did not modulate the expression of CTLA-4 and CD39 in Treg cells. We also studied the effect of ribavirin on Treg cells in the presence of IFN-α; however, the expression of CTLA-4 and CD39 in Treg cells was not changed by ribavirin in the presence of IFN-α. Next, we directly evaluated the effect of ribavirin on the suppressive activity of Treg cells in the standard Treg suppression assay, by co-culturing CFSE-labeled non-Treg CD4(+) T cells with purified Treg cells. We found that ribavirin did not attenuate the suppressive activity of Treg cells. Taken together, while ribavirin reversed Treg cell-mediated suppression of effector T cells in the previous study, we herein demonstrate that ribavirin does not impair the suppressive activity of Treg cells.
利巴韦林是一种抗病毒药物，与聚乙二醇干扰素-α（IFN-α）联合用于治疗丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染。最近，有报道称利巴韦林能抑制调节性 T（Treg）细胞的抑制活性。在本研究中，我们重新评估了利巴韦林对来自正常供体的 Foxp3(+)CD4(+)CD25(+)Treg 细胞的影响。首先，我们检测了 CTLA-4 和 CD39 的表达，已知它们在 Treg 细胞的抑制功能中发挥作用。我们发现利巴韦林处理不会调节 Treg 细胞中 CTLA-4 和 CD39 的表达。我们还研究了 IFN-α 存在下利巴韦林对 Treg 细胞的影响；然而，在 IFN-α 存在下，利巴韦林并没有改变 Treg 细胞中 CTLA-4 和 CD39 的表达。接下来，我们通过共培养 CFSE 标记的非 Treg CD4(+)T 细胞与纯化的 Treg 细胞，直接评估利巴韦林对 Treg 细胞抑制活性的影响。我们发现利巴韦林并没有减弱 Treg 细胞的抑制活性。综上所述，虽然利巴韦林在前一项研究中逆转了 Treg 细胞对效应 T 细胞的抑制作用，但我们在此证明利巴韦林不会损害 Treg 细胞的抑制活性。
