当损伤发生时:胸腺功能的损伤与修复。

When the Damage Is Done: Injury and Repair in Thymus Function.

机构信息

Program in Immunology, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, United States.

Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, United States.

出版信息

Front Immunol. 2020 Aug 12;11:1745. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.01745. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Even though the thymus is exquisitely sensitive to acute insults like infection, shock, or common cancer therapies such as cytoreductive chemo- or radiation-therapy, it also has a remarkable capacity for repair. This phenomenon of endogenous thymic regeneration has been known for longer even than its primary function to generate T cells, however, the underlying mechanisms controlling the process have been largely unstudied. Although there is likely continual thymic involution and regeneration in response to stress and infection in otherwise healthy people, acute and profound thymic damage such as that caused by common cancer cytoreductive therapies or the conditioning regimes as part of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), leads to prolonged T cell deficiency; precipitating high morbidity and mortality from opportunistic infections and may even facilitate cancer relapse. Furthermore, this capacity for regeneration declines with age as a function of thymic involution; which even at steady state leads to reduced capacity to respond to new pathogens, vaccines, and immunotherapy. Consequently, there is a real clinical need for strategies that can boost thymic function and enhance T cell immunity. One approach to the development of such therapies is to exploit the processes of endogenous thymic regeneration into novel pharmacologic strategies to boost T cell reconstitution in clinical settings of immune depletion such as HCT. In this review, we will highlight recent work that has revealed the mechanisms by which the thymus is capable of repairing itself and how this knowledge is being used to develop novel therapies to boost immune function.

摘要

尽管胸腺对感染、休克或常见的癌症治疗方法(如细胞减灭化疗或放射治疗)等急性损伤非常敏感,但它也具有出色的修复能力。这种内源性胸腺再生现象的存在甚至比其产生 T 细胞的主要功能还要早,但控制这一过程的潜在机制在很大程度上仍未得到研究。尽管在健康人中,由于应激和感染,可能会持续发生胸腺萎缩和再生,但常见的癌症细胞减灭治疗或造血细胞移植(HCT)中的预处理方案等引起的急性和严重的胸腺损伤会导致 T 细胞长期缺乏,从而导致机会性感染的高发病率和死亡率增加,甚至可能促进癌症复发。此外,随着年龄的增长,胸腺萎缩会导致再生能力下降;即使在稳定状态下,也会导致对新病原体、疫苗和免疫疗法的反应能力降低。因此,确实需要有能够增强胸腺功能和增强 T 细胞免疫的策略。开发此类疗法的一种方法是利用内源性胸腺再生过程,将其转化为新的药理学策略,以在 HCT 等免疫耗竭的临床环境中增强 T 细胞重建。在这篇综述中,我们将重点介绍最近的研究工作,这些工作揭示了胸腺自我修复的机制,以及如何利用这些知识开发新的疗法来增强免疫功能。

https://cdn.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/blobs/c0a9/7435010/6b8d821efccf/fimmu-11-01745-g0001.jpg

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