T regulatory cells: Achilles’ heel of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection?

T regulatory cells (Treg) constitute a specialized subset of T cells that play a pivotal role in preventing the occurrence of autoimmune diseases by suppressing deleterious activities of immune cells. Contrarily, they can have adverse effect on immune response against infectious diseases where Treg...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Immunologic research 2015-07, Vol.62 (3), p.386-398
Main Authors: Parkash, Om, Agrawal, Sonali, Madhan Kumar, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Allergology
Animals
Biomarkers
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cellular biology
Disease Models, Animal
Humans
Immunology
Interferon-gamma - immunology
Internal Medicine
Interpretive Synthesis Review Article
Medicine/Public Health
Mice
Mycobacterium bovis - immunology
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis - immunology
T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory - immunology
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis Vaccines - immunology
Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - immunology
Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - microbiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:T regulatory cells (Treg) constitute a specialized subset of T cells that play a pivotal role in preventing the occurrence of autoimmune diseases by suppressing deleterious activities of immune cells. Contrarily, they can have adverse effect on immune response against infectious diseases where Treg weaken the host immunity leading to enhanced microbial load and thereby increase in severity of the disease. Here, we have attempted to review plethora of information documenting prevalence of Treg in tuberculosis (TB) and their involvement in progression and immunopathogenesis of the disease. Further, we have laid emphasis on the possible use of Treg as a biomarker for determining the TB treatment efficacy. Also, we have discussed the probable contribution of Treg in dampening the efficacy of BCG, the anti-TB vaccine. Finally, we have speculated some of the possible strategies which might be explored by exploiting Treg for enhancing the efficacy of TB management.
ISSN:0257-277X
1559-0755
DOI:10.1007/s12026-015-8654-0