Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Preclinical studies provide hope that the adoptive transfer of regulatory T cells can be used to treat autoimmunity and prevent transplant rejection. Will such an approach ever be feasible in humans? And which regulatory T-cell subset should we use?
Understanding the state of long-lived functional unresponsiveness of T cells, known as T-cell anergy, could help to prevent T-cell-driven autoimmune diseases. This Review discusses the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon and, in particular, the role of E3 ubiquitin ligases.
Tolerogenic dendritic cells (DCs) have potential as therapeutic tools for preventing transplant rejection. This Review describes what constitutes a tolerogenic DC, how tolerogenic DCs can be induced, the mechanisms by which they mediate tolerance and the future challenges facing DC-based immunotherapy.
CD3-specific monoclonal antibodies have great potential as therapeutics for autoimmune diseases through the induction of immune tolerance. This Review discusses the current progress of the use of these antibodies in preclinical and clinical studies and highlights ways to improve on this type of immune therapy.
How self-reactive B cells can exist in the periphery yet be unresponsive to antigen stimulation is unclear. John Cambier and colleagues describe the mouse models that have been used to study B-cell anergy and the possible mechanisms that explain this phenomenon.
Diane Mathis and Christophe Benoist describe how our understanding of the function of autoimmune regulator (AIRE) has developed over the last decade, from its discovery to its role in central tolerance. Key questions that need to be addressed over the next decade are also highlighted.
In this Viewpoint article, four leading researchers provide their view on the prospect of using tolerogenic cells as an immunotherapy in humans and highlight some of the hurdles that must be addressed for this type of treatment to become a viable therapeutic approach.
Immune tolerance is a built-in control mechanism to prevent the immune system from attacking self tissues, but when it goes awry autoimmune diseases can ensue. This Focus highlights the latest advances in our understanding of immune tolerance and anergy, and how this knowledge can be translated into effective immunotherapies.
