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TRAIL regulates T cell activation and suppresses inflammation in autoimmune diseases

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 17, pages 1281–1283 (2020)Cite this article

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In recent years, it has become evident that the immune tolerance and homeostasis of T cells is highly dynamic and tightly regulated by internal stimuli, including signals from T cell receptor (TCR) and immune checkpoint receptors such as CTLA-4 1. Autoimmune diseases begin with the breakdown of immune tolerance and result in the development of tissue inflammation. The manifestations of autoimmune inflammation are driven by innate immunity and autoreactive pathogenic T and B cells. T cells play a central role in the regulation and initiation of autoimmune responses.

In addition, to investigate the immunoregulatory role and potential therapeutic application of TRAIL in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we further demonstrated that TRAIL effectively suppressed gut inflammation and reduced colitis severity in a DSS-induced colitis animal model.17 To confirm that TRAIL directly inhibits colitogenic T cells in the development of autoimmune colitis, in this study, we used an adoptive transfer colitis model to evaluate the ability of TRAIL-treated T cells to promote the development of gut inflammation and colitis. The results demonstrated that TRAIL directly inhibited colitogenic T cells and the development of mucosal inflammation and colitis in the adoptive transfer-induced colitis model.17 The results implicate a novel immunoregulatory role of TRAIL in gut inflammation and mucosal immunity. All these studies further demonstrated that TRAIL effectively suppresses autoimmune inflammation via an apoptosis-independent pathway.8,16

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 108-2320-B-002-036-MY3 and 105-2628-B- 281-001-MY3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei, China

    I-Tsu Chyuan

  2. School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, China

    I-Tsu Chyuan

  3. Graduate Institute of Immunology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, China

    Ping-Ning Hsu

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, China

    Ping-Ning Hsu

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Correspondence to Ping-Ning Hsu.

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Chyuan, IT., Hsu, PN. TRAIL regulates T cell activation and suppresses inflammation in autoimmune diseases. Cell Mol Immunol 17, 1281–1283 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-020-0410-2

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