Department of Medicine; Rhode Island Hospital and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Providence, RI USA.
Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2013 Jul;9(7):1569-76. doi: 10.4161/hv.24726. Epub 2013 May 31.
Hepatitis C virus, a small single-stranded RNA virus, is a major cause of chronic liver disease. Resolution of primary hepatitis C virus infections depends upon the vigorous responses of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells to multiple viral epitopes. Although such broad CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell responses are readily detected early during the course of infection regardless of clinical outcome, they are not maintained in individuals who develop chronic disease. Purportedly, a variety of factors contribute to the diminished T-cell responses observed in chronic, virus-infected patients including the induction of and biological suppression by CD4(+)FoxP3(+) regulatory T cells. Indeed, a wealth of evidence suggests that regulatory T cells play diverse roles in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis C, impairing the effector T-cell response and viral clearance early during the course of infection and suppressing liver injury as the disease progresses. The factors that affect the generation and biological response of regulatory T cells in chronic, hepatitis C virus-infected patients is discussed.
丙型肝炎病毒是一种小型单链 RNA 病毒，是慢性肝病的主要病因。丙型肝炎病毒初次感染的清除依赖于 CD4(+)和 CD8(+)T 细胞对多种病毒表位的强烈应答。尽管在感染过程中无论临床结局如何，早期就可以轻易检测到这种广泛的 CD4(+)和 CD8(+)T 细胞应答，但在发生慢性疾病的个体中却无法维持。据称，多种因素导致慢性、病毒感染患者 T 细胞应答减弱，包括 CD4(+)FoxP3(+)调节性 T 细胞的诱导和生物学抑制。事实上，大量证据表明，调节性 T 细胞在慢性丙型肝炎的发病机制中发挥多种作用，在感染过程早期削弱效应 T 细胞应答和病毒清除，并在疾病进展过程中抑制肝损伤。本文讨论了影响慢性丙型肝炎病毒感染患者调节性 T 细胞生成和生物学反应的因素。
