Nat Med. 2016 Sep;22(9):991-3. doi: 10.1038/nm.4148. Epub 2016 Aug 8.

Low-dose interleukin-2 treatment selectively modulates CD4(+) T cell subsets in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

He J¹, Zhang X¹, Wei Y², Sun X¹, Chen Y³, Deng J⁴, Jin Y¹, Gan Y¹, Hu X³, Jia R¹, Xu C¹, Hou Z², Leong YA³, Zhu L¹, Feng J², An Y¹, Jia Y¹, Li C¹, Liu X¹, Ye H¹, Ren L¹, Li R¹, Yao H¹, Li Y¹, Chen S¹, Zhang X¹, Su Y¹, Guo J¹, Shen N⁴, Morand EF⁵, Yu D^2,^3,^4,⁵, Li Z¹.

Author information

1: Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
2: Laboratory of Immunology for Environment and Health, Shandong Analysis and Test Center, Shandong Academy of Sciences, Jinan, China.
3: Laboratory for Molecular Immunomodulation, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Infection and Immunity Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
4: China-Australia Centre for Personalised Immunology, Shanghai Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
5: Centre for Inflammatory Diseases, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.

Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a potentially life-threatening autoimmune disease characterized by altered balance of activity between effector and regulatory CD4(+) T cells. The homeostasis of CD4(+) T cell subsets is regulated by interleukin (IL)-2, and reduced production of IL-2 by T cells is observed in individuals with SLE. Here we report that treatment with low-dose recombinant human IL-2 selectively modulated the abundance of regulatory T (Treg) cells, follicular helper T (TFH) cells and IL-17-producing helper T (TH17) cells, but not TH1 or TH2 cells, accompanied by marked reductions of disease activity in patients with SLE.