Depletion of Tregs for adoptive T-cell therapy using CD44 and CD137 as selection markers

Abstract

Evaluation of: Goldstein MJ, Kohrt HE, Houot R et al. Adoptive cell therapy for lymphoma with CD4 T cells depleted of CD137-expressing regulatory T cells. Cancer Res. 72(5), 1239–1247 (2012). Several types of cancer have been shown to be susceptible to cellular immune responses, leading to investigations using various forms of T cell-based, tumor-directed immunotherapy. One potential obstacle for the successful application of these therapies is the suppressive function of Tregs. Goldstein and colleagues evaluate a strategy to identify and remove Tregs from an adoptive T-cell therapy product generated by in vivo vaccination. They demonstrate that the depletion of Tregs characterized by CD44 and CD137 expression enhances antitumor immunity in their mouse model.