Células T reguladoras, infección y autoinmunidad: implicaciones en terapéutica

The mechanisms underlying the control of the immune system are still incompletely solved. The treatment of many human diseases is still a medical challenge. The innate immune system recognizes the difference between self and non-self antigens through the binding of pathogen associated molecular patterns to pattern recognition receptors present on the antigen presenting cells. The recent rediscovered regulatory T cells participate in the immune system homeostasis. On the other hand, regulatory T cells may be incriminated in the pathology of both inflammatory and infectious diseases. Thus, these cells would be a suitable target for the treatment of diseases in which they are involved. The participation of regulatory T cells in some infectious diseases could explain why there is an opposite association between some infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and autoimmune diseases. As a corollary, depletion or inactivation of regulatory T cells could facilitate the development of autoimmune phenomena.