Role of CD20+ T cells in multiple sclerosis: implications for treatment with ocrelizumab

• Published in: Neural regeneration research 2020-04, Vol.15 (4), p.663-664
• Main Authors: Gingele, Stefan, Skripuletz, Thomas, Jacobs, Roland
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antigens; Apoptosis; Cell adhesion & migration; Chemokines; Cytokines; Cytotoxicity; Lymphocytes; Monoclonal antibodies; Multiple sclerosis; Population; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF
• ISSN: 1673-5374; 1876-7958
• DOI: 10.4103/1673-5374.266913

Among others, expression of interferon-γ (IFNγ), interleukin (IL)-1β as well as other ILs, IL-2, IL-4, IL-8 and IL-10, chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2, transforming growth factor β and tumor necrosis factor α was significantly increased in CD20+ T cells compared to CD20– T cells. [...]CD20+ T cells constitute a small subset of ubiquitously distributed T cells with an increased proportion of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, which represent a highly activated subpopulation with considerably enhanced cytokine production even during resting conditions. [...]the subpopulation of CD20+ T cells has also been investigated in patients with MS. The CD4:CD8 ratio and the frequency of different subpopulations, e.g., naive, central memory, effector memory and memory T cells in the CD20+ T cell subset was comparable to the CD20+ T cell population in healthy controls (Palanichamy et al., 2014; von Essen et al., 2019). A considerably higher proportion of CD20+ T cells in peripheral blood displayed expression of chemokine receptors and adhesion molecules as C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2), CCR5, CCR6 or melanoma cell adhesion molecule 1 in RRMS patients as well as in healthy controls compared to CD20– T cells.