Treg cell-based therapies: challenges and perspectives

• Published in: Nature reviews. Immunology Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 158 - 172
• Main Authors: Raffin, Caroline, Vo, Linda T., Bluestone, Jeffrey A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.03.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/250/1619/554/1898/1271; 631/250/1854; 631/250/249/1313; Autoimmune diseases; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cell therapy; Clinical trials; Graft rejection; Graft-versus-host reaction; Immunological diseases; Immunology; Lymphocytes T; Neurological diseases; Review Article; Therapeutic applications; Transplantation; Transplants & implants
• ISSN: 1474-1733; 1474-1741
• DOI: 10.1038/s41577-019-0232-6

Cellular therapies using regulatory T (T reg ) cells are currently undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease. In this Review, we discuss the biology of T reg cells and describe new efforts in T reg cell engineering to enhance specificity, stability, functional activity and delivery. Finally, we envision that the success of T reg cell therapy in autoimmunity and transplantation will encourage the clinical use of adoptive T reg cell therapy for non-immune diseases, such as neurological disorders and tissue repair. Therapies based on adoptive cellular transfer of regulatory T (T reg ) cells are currently undergoing clinical trials for autoimmune diseases, graft-versus-host disease and the prevention of transplant rejection. This Review provides an overview of T reg cell biology and discusses the latest approaches to enhance T reg cells for therapeutic purposes.