Panayotis Verginis and colleagues recently published a study in Cell Metabolism

Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system erroneously attacks our own organs. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) protect against autoimmune reactions while Treg cell aberrancies are a hallmark of autoimmune diseases. Understanding the mechanisms that limit the function of Tregs will facilitate the management of autoimmune diseases. In this study, Alissafi and colleagues describe a mechanism of metabolic defects that leads to Treg cell killing in the course of an autoimmune response. The authors further show that targeting of selective metabolic checkpoints rescues Treg death and alleviate the autoimmune responses. These findings place Treg cell metabolism as a potential therapeutic target for autoimmune diseases.

Mitochondrial Oxidative Damage Underlies Regulatory T Cell Defects in Autoimmunity
Themis Alissafi, Lydia Kalafati, Maria Lazari, Anastasia Filia, Ismini Kloukina, Maria Manifava, Jong-Hyung Lim, Vasileia Ismini Alexaki, Nicholas T Ktistakis, Triantafyllos Doskas, George A Garinis, Triantafyllos Chavakis, Dimitrios T Boumpas, Panayotis Verginis.
Cell Metab. 2020 Jul 22;S1550-4131(20)30359-4. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.07.001
 

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