tcbalance
Biopharmaceuticals

Conventional therapeutic approaches to immune diseases, regardless of whether they are aimed at broad immunosuppression with numerous side effects (e.g., risk of tumors, infections, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes) or specifically inhibit individual pathogenic signaling molecules, generally do not allow readjustment of the shifted immune balance. This reduces the sustainability of these approaches, and often subsequently require a long, often lifelong treatment. Regulatory T cells (Treg) are a small subpopulation of T cells and have the task of attenuating undesired and excessive immune reactions — without Treg we are not able to survive.

However, partial under-numbering and/or under-functioning can also lead to insufficiently balanced and undesired immune responses such as in autoimmunity, transplant rejection, graft-versus-host diseases, hyperinflammation, and unwanted reactions against gene therapy drugs. Numerous data generated worldwide from preclinical model systems show that cell therapy with activated Treg may lead to impressive and lasting therapeutic effects. First early clinical studies confirm the feasibility and safety of such a cell-based therapy and provide promising hints for sustainable effectiveness (e.g., Roemhild et al. BMJ 2020).