Nguyen Thanh-Long M, Makhlouf Nabil T, Anthony Bryan A, Teague Ryan M, DiPaolo Richard J
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Aug 13;9(8):e104698. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104698. eCollection 2014.
Strategies to boost the numbers and functions of regulatory T cells (Tregs) are currently being tested as means to treat autoimmunity. While Tregs have been shown to be effective in this role, strategies to manipulate Tregs to effectively suppress later stages of ongoing diseases need to be established. In this study, we evaluated the ability of TGF-β-induced Tregs (iTregs) specific for the major self-antigen in autoimmune gastritis to suppress established autoimmune gastritis in mice. When transferred into mice during later stages of disease, iTregs demethylated the Foxp3 promoter, maintained Foxp3 expression, and suppressed effector T cell proliferation. More importantly, these iTregs were effective at stopping disease progression. Untreated mice had high numbers of endogenous Tregs (enTregs) but these were unable to stop disease progression. In contrast, iTregs, were found in relatively low numbers in treated mice, yet were effective at stopping disease progression, suggesting qualitative differences in suppressor functions. We identified several inhibitory receptors (LAG-3, PD-1, GARP, and TNFR2), cytokines (TGF-β1 and IL12p35), and transcription factors (IRF4 and Tbet) expressed at higher levels by iTregs compared to enTregs isolated form mice with ongoing disease, which likely accounts for superior suppressor ability in this disease model. These data support efforts to use iTregs in therapies to treat establish autoimmunity, and show that iTregs are more effective than enTregs at suppressing inflammation in this disease model.
目前正在测试增强调节性T细胞(Tregs)数量和功能的策略,以此作为治疗自身免疫性疾病的手段。虽然已证明Tregs在这方面发挥有效作用,但仍需建立能有效操纵Tregs以抑制疾病进展后期阶段的策略。在本研究中,我们评估了针对自身免疫性胃炎主要自身抗原的转化生长因子-β诱导的调节性T细胞(iTregs)抑制小鼠已建立的自身免疫性胃炎的能力。在疾病后期阶段将iTregs转移到小鼠体内时,iTregs使Foxp3启动子去甲基化,维持Foxp3表达,并抑制效应T细胞增殖。更重要的是,这些iTregs能有效阻止疾病进展。未治疗的小鼠有大量内源性调节性T细胞(enTregs),但这些细胞无法阻止疾病进展。相比之下,在接受治疗的小鼠中发现iTregs数量相对较少,但却能有效阻止疾病进展,这表明抑制功能存在质的差异。我们鉴定出几种抑制性受体(LAG-3、PD-1、GARP和TNFR2)、细胞因子(转化生长因子-β1和IL12p35)以及转录因子(IRF4和Tbet),与从患有持续性疾病的小鼠中分离出的enTregs相比,iTregs中这些因子的表达水平更高,这可能是该疾病模型中iTregs具有更强抑制能力的原因。这些数据支持在治疗已建立的自身免疫性疾病中使用iTregs的努力,并表明在该疾病模型中,iTregs在抑制炎症方面比enTregs更有效。