Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogeneous population of immature suppressor cells that are generated due to aberrant myelopoiesis under pathological conditions. Although MDSCs have been recognized for more than 20 years under the guise of different monikers, these particular populations of myeloid cells gained more attention recently due to their immunosuppressive properties, which halt host immune responses to growing cancers or overwhelming infections. While MDSCs may contribute to immune homeostasis after infection or tissue injury by limiting excessive inflammatory processes, their expansion may be at the expense of pathogen elimination and thus may lead to disease persistence. Therefore, MDSCs may be either damaging or obliging to the host by attenuating, for example, antitumor or anti-infectious immune responses. In this review, we recapitulate the biological and immunological aspects of MDSCs, including their generation, distribution, trafficking and the factors involved in their activation, expansion, suppressive functions, and interplay between MDSCs and regulatory T cells, with a focus on the perspectives of infection and inflammation.

SummaryT cells play a pivotal role in controlling viral infection; however, the precise mechanisms responsible for regulating T-cell differentiation and function during infections are incompletely understood. In this study, we demonstrated an expansion of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (

In this study, we demonstrate that killer cell lectin-like receptor subfamily G member 1 (KLRG1), a transmembrane protein preferentially expressed on T cells, is highly expressed on CD56 ؉ NK cells, which are significantly reduced in their numbers and functions in the peripheral blood of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection compared to subjects without infection. KLRG1 expression is also upregulated on healthy NK cells exposed to Huh-7 hepatocytes infected with HCV in vitro. Importantly, the expression levels of KLRG1 are inversely associated with the capacity of NK cells to proliferate and to produce gamma interferon (IFN-␥) but positively associated with apoptosis of NK cells in response to inflammatory cytokine stimulation. KLRG1؉ NK cells, including CD56 bright and CD56 dim subsets, exhibit impaired cell activation and IFN-␥ production but increased apoptosis compared to KLRG1؊ NK cells, particularly in HCV-infected individuals. Importantly, blockade of KLRG1 signaling significantly recovered the impaired IFN-␥ production by NK cells from HCV-infected subjects. Blockade of KLRG1 also enhanced the impaired phosphorylation of Akt (Ser473) in NK cells from HCV-infected subjects. Taken together, these results indicate that KLRG1 negatively regulates NK cell numbers and functions via the Akt pathway, thus providing a novel marker and therapeutic target for HCV infection.

SummaryHost immune responses must be tightly regulated by an intricate balance between positive and negative signals while fighting pathogens; persistent pathogens may usurp these regulatory mechanisms to dampen host immunity to facilitate survival in vivo. Here we report that Tim-3, a negative signalling molecule expressed on monocytes and T cells, is up-regulated on natural killer (NK) cells in individuals chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Additionally, the transcription factor T-bet was also found to be up-regulated and associated with Tim-3 expression in NK cells during chronic HCV infection. , an miRNA that inhibits signalling proteins involved in immune responses, was down-regulated in NK cells by HCV infection. This Tim-3/T-bet over-expression and miR-155 inhibition were recapitulated in vitro by incubating primary NK cells or NK92 cell line with Huh-7 hepatocytes expressing HCV. Reconstitution of miR-155 in NK cells from HCVinfected patients led to a decrease in T-bet/Tim-3 expression and an increase in interferon-c production. Blocking Tim-3 signalling also enhanced interferon-c production in NK cells by improving signal transducer and activator of transcription-5 phosphorylation. These data indicate that HCV-induced, miR-155-regulated Tim-3 expression regulates NK cell function, suggesting a novel mechanism for balancing immune clearance and immune injury during chronic viral infection.Keywords: hepatitis C virus; interferon-c; microRNA-155; natural killer cells; signal transducer and activator of transcription-5; T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain protein-3.

Co-infection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is quite common, leading to an increase in morbidity and mortality. As such, HBV vaccination is recommended in HCV-infected individuals. HBV vaccine responses in HCV-infected individuals, however, are often blunted when compared to uninfected populations. The mechanism for this failure of vaccine response in HCV-infected subjects remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the expression and function of an inhibitory receptor, killer cell lectin-like receptor subfamily G member 1 (KLRG1), in regulation of CD4+ T cells and HBV vaccine responses during HCV infection. We demonstrated that KLRG1 was over-expressed on CD4+ T cells from HCV-infected, HBV vaccine non-responders (HBV-NR) compared to those responders (HBV-R). The capacity of CD4+ T cell to proliferate and secrete IL-2 cytokine was inversely associated with the level of KLRG1 expression. Importantly, blocking KLRG1 signaling resulted in a significant improvement of CD4+ T cell proliferation and IL-2 production in HCV-infected, HBV-NR in response to T cell receptor (TCR) stimulation. Moreover, blockade of KLRG1 increased the phosphorylation of Akt (Ser473) and decreased the expression of cell cycle inhibitors p16ink4a and p27kip1, which subsequently enhanced CDK 2 and cyclin E expressions. These results suggest that the KLRG1 pathway impairs CD4+ T cell responses to neo-antigen and induces a state of immune senescence in individuals with HCV infection, raising the possibility that blocking this negative signaling pathway might improve HBV vaccine responses in the setting of chronic viral infection.