T Cells, Interleukin-2 and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus-From Pathophysiology to Therapy

• Published in: Cells (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 11; no. 6; p. 980
• Main Author: Mak, Anselm
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 12.03.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Animal models; Animals; Antigens; Clinical trials; Cytokines; Gene expression; Humans; Inflammation; Interleukin 2; Kinases; Lipids; Lupus; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Metabolism; Mice; Pathophysiology; Phosphorylation; Proteins; regulatory; Review; Signal transduction; SLE; Systemic lupus erythematosus; T cell; T cell receptors; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory; interleukin-2; SLE; lupus; T cell; regulatory
• ISSN: 2073-4409; 2073-4409
• DOI: 10.3390/cells11060980

The phenotypic and functional complexities of T cells engender complicated and often confusing concepts as to how T cells ignite, accelerate and brake the inflammatory processes involved in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), let alone the plasticity of T cells that takes place under different immunological contexts. Nevertheless, being one of the prime survival factors of T cells, interleukin (IL)-2 plays a potentially critical role in many immunological scenarios during the pathophysiological process of SLE. Here, the pathophysiology of lupus T cells and current, as well as ongoing, therapeutic approaches of SLE that involve low-dose IL-2 administration will be highlighted. The mechanisms of IL-2 deficiency in SLE pathophysiology, the effects of low-dose IL-2 on T cells and restoration of lupus manifestations in murine SLE models, as well as the efficacy and safety of clinical trials that evaluated low-dose IL-2-containing regimens in patients with SLE will be discussed.