Title: CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T-Cell Therapy for Allergy, Autoimmune Disease and Transplant Rejection
VOLUME: 5 ISSUE: 4
Author(s):Shuiping Jiang and Robert I. Lechler
Affiliation:Immunoregulation Laboratory, Department of Nephrology and Transplantation, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK.
Keywords:CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells, FoxP3, adoptive cell therapy, antigen-specificity, allergy, autoimmune disease, transplantation tolerance, pharmacological agents
Abstract: Naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a critical role in the control of periphery tolerance to self-antigens. Interestingly, they also control immune responses to allergens and transplant antigens. Recent studies in animal models have shown that adoptive transfer of CD4+CD25+ Tregs can prevent or even cure allergic and autoimmune diseases, and appear to induce transplantation tolerance. Thus, adoptive cell therapy using patient-specific CD4+CD25+ Tregs has been emerged as individualized medicine for the treatment of inflammatory disease including allergy, autoimmune disease and transplant rejection. Furthermore, strategies to activate and expand antigen-specific CD4+CD25+ Tregs in vivo using pharmacological agents may represent a novel avenue for drug development.
