APL1, an altered peptide ligand derived from human heat-shock protein 60, increases the frequency of Tregs and its suppressive capacity against antigen responding effector CD4+T cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients

作者：Barbera Ariana; Lorenzo Noraylis; van Kooten Peter; van Roon Joel; de Jager Wilco; Prada Dinorah; Gomez Jorge; Padron Gabriel; van Eden Willem; Broere Femke; del Carmen Dominguez Maria

来源：Cell Stress & Chaperones, 2016, 21(4): 735-744.

DOI：10.1007/s12192-016-0698-0

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Heat shock protein 60
• Altered peptide ligands
• Regulatory T cells

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by a chronic relapsing-remitting joint inflammation. Perturbations in the balance between CD4 + T cells producing IL-17 and CD4+CD25(high)FoxP3 + Tregs correlate with irreversible bone and cartilage destruction in RA. APL1 is an altered peptide ligand derived from a CD4+ T-cell epitope of human HSP60, an autoantigen expressed in the inflamed synovium, which increases the frequency of CD4 + CD25(high)FoxP3+ Tregs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from RA patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the suppressive capacity of Tregs induced by APL1 on proliferation of effector CD4+ T cells using co-culture experiments. Enhanced Treg-mediated suppression was observed in APL1-treated cultures compared with cells cultured only with media. Subsequent analyses using autologous crossover experiments showed that the enhanced Treg suppression in APL1-treated cultures could reflect increased suppressive function of Tregs against APL1-responsive T cells. On the other hand, APL1-treatment had a significant effect reducing IL-17 levels produced by effector CD4+ T cells. Hence, this peptide has the ability to increase the frequency of Tregs and their suppressive properties whereas effector T cells produce less IL-17. Thus, we propose that APL1 therapy could help to ameliorate the pathogenic Th17/Treg balance in RA patients.

• 出版日期2016-7
• 单位河北医科大学