Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• van der Burg, Sjoerd H
• Piersma, Sytse J
• de Jong, Annemieke
• van der Hulst, Jeanette M
• Kwappenberg, Kitty M.C
• van den Hende, Muriel
• Welters, Marij J.P
• Van Rood, Jon J
• Fleuren, Gert Jan
• Melief, Cornelis J.M
• Kenter, Gemma G
• Offringa, Rienk

Titel

Association of cervical cancer with the presence of CD4⁺ regulatory T cells specific for human papillomavirus antigens

Ist Teil von

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 2007-07, Vol.104 (29), p.12087-12092

Ort / Verlag

United States: National Academy of Sciences

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Because of their important role in the maintenance of self-tolerance, CD4⁺ regulatory T cells prevent autoimmune diseases but also curtail the efficacy of T cell immune responses against cancers. We now show that this suppressive action of CD4⁺ regulatory T cells is not limited to cancers displaying tumor-associated self antigens, such as melanomas, but also extends to human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive cervical cancers that express foreign tumor antigens. HPV-specific CD4⁺ T cells isolated from lymph node biopsies of cervical cancer patients were found to suppress proliferation and cytokine (IFN-γ, IL-2) production by responder T cells. The capacity of HPV-specific CD4⁺ T cells to exert this suppressive effect depended on their activation by cognate HPV antigen and on close-range interactions with responder T cells. HPV-specific CD4⁺ regulatory T cells were also retrieved from cervical cancer biopsies, suggesting that they interfere with the anti-tumor immune response at both the induction and effector levels. Our findings offer a plausible explanation for the observed failure of the tumor-specific immune response in patients with cervical carcinoma.