Treg Therapy Research Articles

Combined therapy of CD4 +CD25 + regulatory T cells with low-dose sirolimus, but not calcineurin inhibitors, preserves suppressive function of regulatory T cells and prolongs allograft survival in mice

Our previous study proved that sirolimus is a potent immunosuppressant which induces long-term allograft survival depends on persistence of alloantigens. CD4 +CD25 + regulatory T (Treg) cells are potent suppressors in transplantation. Our objectives focus on whether combined-therapy of Tregs with immunosuppressants could prolong allograft survival in mice. The study showed that inhibition of Tregs was maintained by co-cultured with sirolimus (1 nM) in vitro, but not tacrolimus (1 nM) or CsA (1 nM). When the concentration was increased > 100 nM, suppression was fallen. Based on the ability of sirolimus to target effector T cells, but retaining the inhibition of Tregs, an adoptive infusion of donor alloantigen specific Tregs combined with 30-day sirolimus (1 mg/kg) and 3-day ATG (20 mg/kg) was found to prolong heart allograft survival in mice. Even though the cell numbers of CD4 + T cells were found to decrease in sirolimus-treated mice, sirolimus selectively enhanced the numbers of CD4 +CD25 + cells and increased the expression of Foxp3 in spleens and lymph nodes, respectively, in recipients. However, combined therapy with low-dose CsA (5 mg/kg) or tacrolimus (1 mg/kg) reduced significantly the expression of Foxp3 and failed to prolong the allograft survival. In summary, expanded Tregs exposed to sirolimus can survive, proliferate, and preserve inhibition in vitro. Tregs are more resistant to sirolimus than other T cells. Combined with Tregs, sirolimus rather than calcineurin inhibitors, prolongs the allograft survival. Sirolimus may be the best copartner for Tregs therapy. It also suggests calcineurin-dependent signals may be required in the development of Tregs.

Suppression of Murine Allergic Airway Disease by IL-2:Anti-IL-2 Monoclonal Antibody-Induced Regulatory T Cells

Regulatory T cells (Treg) play a decisive role in many diseases including asthma and allergen-induced lung inflammation. However, little progress has been made developing new therapeutic strategies for pulmonary disorders. In the current study we demonstrate that cytokine:antibody complexes of IL-2 and anti-IL-2 mAb reduce the severity of allergen-induced inflammation in the lung by expanding Tregs in vivo. Unlike rIL-2 or anti-IL-2 mAb treatment alone, IL-2:anti-IL-2 complexes dampened airway inflammation and eosinophilia while suppressing IL-5 and eotaxin-1 production. Mucus production, airway hyperresponsiveness to methacholine, and parenchymal tissue inflammation were also dramatically reduced following IL-2:anti-IL-2 treatment. The suppression in allergic airway disease was associated with a marked expansion of Tregs (IL-10(+)CD4(+)CD25(+) and Foxp3(+)CD4(+)CD25(+)) in the tissues, with a corresponding decrease in effector T cell responses. The ability of IL-2:anti-IL-2 complexes to suppress airway inflammation was dependent on Treg-derived IL-10, as IL-10(+/+), but not IL-10(-/-) Tregs, were capable of mediating the suppression. Furthermore, a therapeutic protocol using a model of established airway allergy highlighted the ability of IL-2:anti-IL-2 complexes to expand Tregs and prevent successive airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness. This study suggests that endogenous Treg therapy may be a useful tool to combat the rising incidence of allergic airway disease.

Clinical application of regulatory T cells for treatment of type 1 diabetes and transplantation

Immune regulation is a complex process that depends on the maintenance of self tolerance while retaining robust immune responses against microbes. The emergence of Treg as a central mechanism for immune regulation has generated a new paradigm where Treg-resistant memory T cells and/or "defective" Treg lead to a breakdown in tolerance resulting in immune pathology. In this perspective, we highlight the opportunities and challenges in the field of Treg therapy.

Cell Therapy in a Mouse Model of Immune-Mediated Bone Marrow Failure.

Immune-mediated bone marrow (BM) failure has been modeled in the mouse by infusion of lymph node cells from allogeneic C57BL/6 (B6) donors into major or minor histocompatibility antigen-mismatched recipients (Chen et al., Blood 2004; Bloom et al., Exp Hematol 2004, Chen et al., J Immunol 2007). Co-infusion of limited numbers of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) can alleviate clinical manifestations by suppressing the expansion of pathogenic T cells (Chen et al., J Immunol 2007). In the current study, we investigated the effectiveness of Tregs and suppressor cells contained in BM stroma in this fatal disease. Infusion of fewer than 3 × 103 Tregs to each recipient mouse had only a minor effect in preserving BM cells and did not prevent pancytopenia. Fifteen-50 × 103 thymic Tregs was moderately protective: blood WBC, RBC, platelet and BM cell counts at three weeks after cell infusion were 197%, 116%, 155% and 158% of those of control animals that did not receive Treg infusion; 5–10 × 103 B6 splenic Tregs produced the largest effect as WBC, RBC, platelet and BM cell counts were 275%, 143%, 276%, and 198% of controls. Overall, Treg therapy was helpful but its effectiveness was limited and variable among individual recipients as no antigen-specific Tregs can be identified for the treatment of BM failure. Learned about the immunosuppressive effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), we went on to test the effectiveness of stromal cells as another therapeutic modality for BM failure, since stromal cells contain MSCs. These cells were derived from B6 BM by culture in α-modified Eagle medium at 33°C with 5% CO2 for two weeks. After separating the non-adherent cells, we detached the adherent stromal cells and infused them into TBI + B6 LN-infused C.B10 mice. Injection of 106 stromal cells at the time of LN cell infusion effectively preserved WBCs (3.09 ± 0.51 vs 0.61 ± 0.18), RBCs (8.72 ± 0.14 vs 3.52 ± 0.46), platelets (924 ± 93 vs 147 ± 25) and BM cells (186.6 ± 8.7 vs 52.7 ± 7.8) when compared to LN-cell-infused mice without stromal cell addition. Delayed stromal cell injection at day 9 after LN cell infusion had only a mild effect on the preservation of RBCs (147%), platelets (276%) and BM cells (223%) and no effect on WBCs (64%), and infusion of non-adherent cells from the same stromal cell culture had no therapeutic effect. Stromal cell-infused mice had higher proportion of FoxP3+CD4+ cells in the peripheral blood (59.7 ± 10.7% vs 29.8 ± 5.4%) and more Lin−CD117+CD34− hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in the BM (591 ± 95 vs 60 ± 43, thousand) in comparison to LN cell infused mice without stromal cell treatment. Mitigation of pathogenic T cells, including both CD4 and CD8 T lymphocytes, is the potential mechanism for the effectiveness of Treg and stromal cell therapies that helped to protect hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in the BM of affected animals. [Display omitted]

Expansion of CD4 +CD25 + suppressive regulatory T cells from rhesus macaque peripheral blood by FN18/antihuman CD28-coated Dynal beads

CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) play an important role in allograft and self-tolerance and thus have potential therapeutic application in transplantation, autoimmunity, and allergy. Although nonhuman primate (NHP) provide the most accepted preclinical models for translational studies in allograft tolerance and infectious diseases, CD4(+)CD25(+) Tregs have been rarely studied in NHP. The low frequencies of Tregs in peripheral blood will likely necessitate ex vivo expansion to enable Tregs adaptive immune therapy in NHP and humans. Tregs were isolated by magnetic and flow sorting and then stimulated weekly with antirhesus CD3 clone FN18 and antihuman CD28-coated Dynal beads plus 100 U/ml rhIL-2. Under these conditions, the Tregs were expanded 300- to 2000-fold in 4 weeks. Expanded CD4(+)CD25(+) Tregs expressed high to moderate levels of FOXP3 as well as CD95, CD62L, CD69, and CCR7 surface antigens. Expanded rhesus Tregs were anergic and suppressed the proliferation of autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in a dose-dependent fashion, and the suppression was partially reversed by anti-transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 neutralizing antibody (Ab). These results demonstrate that rhesus macaque suppressive regulatory CD4(+)CD25(+)FOXP3(+) Tregs can be efficiently expanded in vitro under rhesus-specific stimulation, which enables preclinical testing of Treg therapy in the NHP model.

Costimulation Through ICAM-1 Induces Differentiation of Human Naïve CD4+ T Cells to Regulatory T Cells (88.32)

Abstract Inducible regulatory T cells can be generated from precursor cells in the periphery. However, the specific precursors and the mechanism of Treg differentiation are not well characterized. We investigated the participation of Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in the process of Treg induction beginning with human naïve CD4+ T cells, defined as CD45RA+CD45RO-CD11aloCD27+CCR7+. Costimulation of naïve CD4+ T cells through ICAM-1 (but not CD28) resulted in the appearance of a sizeable population of Foxp3+CD25+CD4+ Treg cells. This stimulation treatment also generated substantial quantities of the immunosuppressive cytokine IL-10. The Treg cells that differentiated following costimulation through ICAM-1 strongly inhibited responder cell proliferation in co-culture experiments. The ability of naïve CD4+ T cells to undergo this differentiation process was examined using cells from both young individuals and older individuals. These results indicate that ICAM-1 resident on the surface of naïve CD4+ T cells can mediate the differentiation of Tregs from naïve cells and suggest that ICAM-1 may be a signaling molecule to target for Treg therapies.

Conversion of human CD4+CD25-FOXP3- into CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ T cells: Implications for a cell-based therapy for IBD?

Aims: Regulatory CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ T cells (Treg) prevent and treat established colitis in animal models and they are numerically deficient in patients with active IBD. This suggests that cellular Treg therapy might be a promising option. Autologous Treg for cellular therapy might be obtained by in vitro expansion of natural Treg or conversion of CD4+CD25-FOXP3- cells into functional Treg.

Regulatory T cells induce a privileged tolerant microenvironment at the fetal‐maternal interface

The mechanisms underlying immune tolerance during pregnancy are poorly understood. In this regard, Treg seem to play an important role in mediating maternal tolerance to the fetus. We proposed a crucial role of T regulatory cells (Treg) in avoiding immunological rejection of the fetus after observing diminished number and function of Treg in abortion-prone mice. We further confirmed the protective role of Treg during pregnancy by transferring pregnancy-induced Treg into abortion-prone mice, which prevented rejection. Here, we analyzed the mechanisms involved in Treg-mediated protection. As expected, Treg therapy prevented abortion, while expanding the peripheral and thymic Treg population. Surprisingly, the decidual levels of the Th1 cytokines IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha were not diminished after therapy. Interestingly, the mRNA levels of leukemia inhibitory factor, TGF-beta and heme oxygenase-1 at the fetal-maternal interface were dramatically up-regulated after Treg transfer, while the levels of indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase remained unchanged. Our data suggest that Treg treatment can not prevent T cell infiltration or high Th1 levels but is able to create a privileged tolerant microenvironment at the fetal-maternal interface, further shedding light onto the molecular mechanisms involved in pregnancy tolerance.

ASRI2005‐89 During pregnancy, treg cells induce a privileged tolerant microenvironment at the fetal‐maternal interface by up‐regulating HO‐1, TGF‐β and LIF expression

The mechanisms underlying immune tolerance during pregnancy are poorly understood. We recently proposed a crucial role of T regulatory cells (Treg) in avoiding immunological rejection of the fetus, since we observed diminished number and function of Treg in abortion‐prone mice. We further confirmed the protective role of Treg during pregnancy by transferring pregnancy‐induced Treg into abortion‐prone mice, which prevented rejection. Here, we analyzed the mechanisms involved in Treg‐mediated protection. We transferred mice undergoing abortion with Treg from mice having normal pregnancies, including normal pregnant and abortion‐prone mice as controls. We evaluated decidual lymphocytes for their cytokine profile. The mRNA levels for several tolerance‐associated cytokines were also analyzed. As expected, Treg therapy prevented abortion, while expanding the peripheral and thymic Treg population. Locally, augmented foxp3 levels could be observed. Surprisingly, after therapy the decidual levels of the Th1 cytokines IFN‐γ and TNF‐α were not diminished. The transfer of Treg dramatically up‐regulated the expression of LIF, TGF‐β and HO‐1 at the fetal‐maternal interface. Our data suggest that Treg‐treatment can not prevent T cell infiltration or high Th1 levels but is able to create a privileged tolerant microenvironment at the fetal‐maternal interface, further shedding light onto the molecular mechanisms involved in pregnancy tolerance.