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  • Review Article
  • Published:

Regulatory T cells: friend or foe in immunity to infection?

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 4, pages 841–855 (2004)Cite this article

Key Points

  • There are distinct populations of natural and inducible regulatory T cells that have the common property of suppressing immune responses. Natural regulatory T cells arise in the thymus and express CD25 and the transcriptional repressor FOXP3 (forkhead box P3), whereas inducible regulatory T cells are generated from naive T cells in the periphery after encounter with antigen.

  • Regulatory T cells suppress the proliferation of and cytokine production by T helper 1 (TH1) cells, TH2 cells and CD8+ T cells, either by cell–cell contact mechanisms or through production of the immunosuppressive cytokines interleukin-10 (IL-10) and transforming growth factor-β.

  • Infection with many (and perhaps all) pathogens that cause persistent or chronic infections is associated with the induction of regulatory T cells specific for pathogen-derived antigens.

  • The induction of regulatory T cells specific for pathogen-derived antigens is directed by semi-mature dendritic cells, which have an intermediate phenotype that includes low-level expression of CD40 and production of IL-12 but high levels of IL-10 production.

  • Immune responses that help to eliminate pathogens can cause collateral damage to host tissues, and if they are not tightly regulated, they can exacerbate the course of disease through the development of immunopathology. Regulatory T cells have a protective role in infection by limiting pathogen-induced immunopathology, while allowing the development of immunological memory.

  • Most pathogens have evolved sophisticated mechanisms of survival through the evasion and subversion of host immune responses. Regulatory T cells can be exploited by pathogens to subvert the protective immune responses of the host, thereby enabling pathogen persistence and the development of a state of chronic infection.

  • Suppression of the activation of regulatory T cells or their cytokine production is a promising approach for the development of therapies for chronic infections, as well as cancer, but it has the risk of promoting inflammation and autoimmunity.

Abstract

Homeostasis in the immune system depends on a balance between the responses that control infection and tumour growth and the reciprocal responses that prevent inflammation and autoimmune diseases. It is now recognized that regulatory T cells have a crucial role in suppressing immune responses to self-antigens and in preventing autoimmune diseases. Evidence is also emerging that regulatory T cells control immune responses to bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. This article explores the possibility that regulatory T cells can be both beneficial to the host, through limiting the immunopathology associated with anti-pathogen immune responses, and beneficial to the pathogen, through subversion of the protective immune responses of the host.

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Figure 1: Immunity to infection.
Figure 2: Natural and inducible regulatory T cells.
Figure 3: Targets of regulatory T cells and mechanisms of suppression.
Figure 4: Role of pathogen-derived molecules in promoting the induction of regulatory T cells versus TH1 and TH2 cells.
Figure 5: Protective immunity versus immunopathology depends on a balance between regulatory and effector T cells.

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Acknowledgements

I acknowledge support from Science Foundation Ireland, The Irish Health Research Board and Enterprise Ireland, and I am grateful to P. McGuirk and E. Lavelle for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Immune Regulation Research Group, Trinity College, Dublin, 2, Ireland

    Kingston H. G. Mills

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Competing interests

Kingston H. G. Mills is a founder, director and shareholder of a University Campus Company, Opsona Therapeuticas Ltd, which was established to exploit intellectual property arising from research in his laboratory, and that of two colleagues, at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

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DATABASES

Entrez Gene

CD4

CD25

CD28

CD38

CD40

CD45

CD46

CD62L

CD86

CD103

CTLA4

FOXP3

GITR

ICAM1

IFN-α

IFN-γ

IL-4

IL-6

IL-10

IL-10R

IL-12

IL-12R

IL-23

IL-27

LFA1

RAG

SMAD4

T-bet

TGF-β

TLR2

TLR4

TNF

Infectious Disease Information

Bordetella pertussis

Brugia malayi

Candida albicans

EBV

Escherichia coli

HCV

HIV

Leishmania major

Listeria monocytogenes

malaria

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Onchocerca volvulus

Pneumocystis carinii

rabies virus

Schistosoma mansoni

Yersinia enterocolitica

Glossary

CHRONIC INFECTIONS

Infections that persist for a long time, often indefinitely, and might not be cleared following the development of anti-pathogen immune responses. These include infection with HIV, hepatitis C virus and many parasites.

PERSISTENT INFECTIONS

Non-lethal infections (such as infection with Bordetella pertussis) that are not cleared immediately (lasting for weeks or months rather than days) and are usually associated with the delayed development or suppression of anti-pathogen immune responses. In persistent viral infections, virus production occurs in a cell that is not killed by the virus (non-lytic); this includes chronic, latent and transforming infections.

ANTIGENIC VARIATION

Changes in the composition, structure or amino-acid sequence of antigenic components of pathogens recognized by T or B cells, which allow the microorganism to escape recognition by the adaptive immune response.

ATHYMIC

Mice that lack a thymus and are therefore deficient in T cells.

NUDE

A mutation in mice that causes both hairlessness and defective formation of the thymus, which results in a lack of mature T cells.

ANERGIC

A state of unresponsiveness by T or B cells to antigens. After stimulation, anergic T cells cannot produce interleukin-2 or proliferate, even in the presence of co-stimulatory signals.

MIXED CRYOGLOBULINAEMIA

Cryoglobulins are antibodies that precipitate at cold temperatures and dissolve on warming. Mixed cryoglobulinaemia is a B-cell proliferative disorder that is characterized by polyclonal B-cell activation and autoantibody production. Patients with mixed cryoglobulinaemia have circulating cryoproteins and inflammation of small blood vessels, with inflammatory changes prominent in the skin (vasculitis), and might have renal and neurological involvement.

DEMYELINATING

Causing damage to the myelin sheath surrounding nerves in the brain and spinal cord, which affects the function of the nerves involved. Demyelination occurs in multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the nervous system affecting young and middle-aged adults, and in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, which is a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

SECONDARY INFECTION

An infection in a host already infected with another pathogen, often caused by opportunistic pathogens in immunodeficient or immunosuppressed hosts.

TOLL-LIKE RECEPTOR

(TLR). A member of a family of receptors that recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns. TLRs recognize conserved molecular patterns that are common to large groups of microorganisms and/or viruses.

SEVERE COMBINED IMMUNODEFICIENT

(SCID). Mice with this immune-system defect do not have B or T cells and therefore can accept tumour cells from another species without rejection.

ALLOREACTIVE

Responding to antigens that are distinct between members of the same species, such as MHC molecules or blood-group antigens.

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Mills, K. Regulatory T cells: friend or foe in immunity to infection?. Nat Rev Immunol 4, 841–855 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1485

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