The Role of Regulatory T Cells in Cancer

Abstract

There has been an explosion of literature focusing on the role of regulatory T (Treg) cells in cancer immunity. It is becoming increasingly clear that Treg cells play an active and significant role in the progression of cancer, and have an important role in suppressing tumor-specific immunity. Thus, there is a clear rationale for developing clinical strategies to diminish their regulatory influences, with the ultimate goal of augmenting antitimor immunity. Therefore, manipulation of Treg cells represent new strategies for cancer treatment. In this Review, I will summarize and review the explosive recent studies demonstrating that Treg cells are increased in patients with malignancies and restoration of antitumor immunity in mice and humans by depletion or reduction of Treg cells. In addition, I will discuss both the prognostic value of Treg cells in tumor progression in tumor-bearing hosts and the rationale for strategies for therapeutic vaccination and immunotherapeutic targeting of Treg cells with drugs and microRNA.

The Role of Regulatory T cell in acute leukemia and associated febrile infections

“…Among these cells are Treg which contribute to tumor immunesurveillance (Ha, 2009). Treg are critical in host suppression of organ autoimmune diseases.…”

Emerging Cytokine Networks in Osteosarcoma

“…Although IL-2 is not required for the development of regulatory T cells (Tregs) -a subpopulation of T lymphocytes characterized by expression of CD25+ and the transcription factor forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) that have an important role in suppressing tumour-specific immunity [67,68] -in the thymus, it is essential to the survival, physiological expansion and function of Tregs in the periphery [68][69] . IL-2 courses administered alternated with pre-and post-operative polichemotherapy in osteosarcoma treatment have been shown to increase the number and activity of NK cells, which correlated with the improved prognosis of patients [70] .…”

Potent anti-tumor killing activity of the multifunctional Treg cell line HOZOT against human tumors with diverse origins

“…HOZOT cells were labeled with PKH-26 (red color) according to the manufacturer's instructions (sigma Aldrich Japan, Tokyo, Japan), and WiDr-EGFP-9 was employed as a target. Twelve hours after seeding WiDr-EGFP-9 (1x10 6 ) in a 3.5 cm-diameter Petri dish, PKH-26-labeled HOZOT cells (2x10 6 ) were added at an effector: target (E:T) ratio of 2:1. The movement of living HOZOT cells was tracked for 30 h and recorded.…”

“…Conversely, Tregs play an opposing role in tumor immunology, often encouraging the growth of tumors in the microenvironment because of their immunosuppressive effects on anti-tumor effector cells (6). A great deal of effort has been focused on eliminating or reducing the immunosuppressive ability of Tregs in order to promote tumor regression (2).…”