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Blocking HDACs boosts regulatory T cells

Nature Medicine volume 13, pages 1282–1284 (2007)Cite this article

Histone deacetylase inhibitors, which are in clinical use as anticancer agents, also affect the biology of regulatory T cells. These inhibitors may also hold promise as immunomodulatory drugs (pages 1299–1307).

Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) are key mediators of immune tolerance to both self and nonself antigens. Treg cells suppress the responses of conventional CD4+ T cells and other immune cells such as B cells, natural killer cells and dendritic cells in a variety of immune settings1. Because Treg cells have such wide-ranging immunosuppressive abilities, it is hoped that they can be used to curb autoimmune diseases and prevent rejection of transplanted organs2. But Treg cells have not yet been used clinically, in part because there are few Treg cells in the body, and also because it has been difficult to culture them ex vivo to increase their number.

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Figure 1: Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) promote Treg cell fate in vivo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pavan Reddy is in the Department of Internal Medicine and Weiping Zou is in the Department of Surgery, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA reddypr@umich.edu,

    Pavan Reddy & Weiping Zou

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  1. Pavan Reddy
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  2. Weiping Zou
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Reddy, P., Zou, W. Blocking HDACs boosts regulatory T cells. Nat Med 13, 1282–1284 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1107-1282

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