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Cardioimmunology

Low-dose IL-2 therapy reduces arterial inflammation in acute coronary syndromes

Nature Reviews Cardiology (2026)Cite this article

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Treatment with low-dose IL-2 increases regulatory T (Treg) cell numbers and reduces arterial inflammation in patients with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and residual systemic inflammation compared with placebo, according to findings from the IVORY trial, published in Nature Medicine. “We also observed an encouraging early signal for clinical benefit on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) at 2 years of follow-up,” highlights Ziad Mallat, who conceived the trial.

Conversely, Treg cells modulate the immune response and are involved in tissue homeostasis, healing and repair. Moreover, the levels of these cells are reduced in patients with ACS, suggesting that increasing endogenous Treg cell numbers might be a potential targeted anti-inflammatory therapy in these patients. “We previously demonstrated in the LILACS trial that low-dose IL-2 safely increased Treg cell levels in patients with ischaemic heart disease, and this finding paved the way for the IVORY trial, which applied concepts such as drug repurposing and imaging biomarkers to accelerate the translation of Treg cell-mediated therapies in ACS,” comments Joseph Cheriyan, chief investigator of the trial. IL-2 therapy is approved for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma.

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  1. Nature Reviews Cardiology http://www.nature.com/nrcardio/

    Irene Fernández-Ruiz

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  1. Irene Fernández-Ruiz
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Correspondence to Irene Fernández-Ruiz.

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Fernández-Ruiz, I. Low-dose IL-2 therapy reduces arterial inflammation in acute coronary syndromes. Nat Rev Cardiol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-026-01256-0

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