Monitoring the Frequency and Function of Regulatory T Cells and Summary of the Approaches Currently Used to Inhibit Regulatory T Cells in Cancer Patients

Regulatory T cells (Treg) are a subset of T lymphocytes that in humans represent less than the 10 % of circulating CD4+ T cells. Treg are specialized in the inhibition of the immune responses and play a crucial role in the maintenance of immunological tolerance. Several lines of evidence clearly documented the role of Treg in restraining antitumor immune responses. For this reason, antitumor immunotherapy approaches have been recently associated with drug treatments aimed at depleting Treg or blocking their functions. A summary of the currently used in vivo approaches to limit Treg expansion in cancer patients is here provided.
Source: Springer protocols feed by Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: news