Regulatory T cells articles from across Nature Portfolio

This review summarizes the role of FOXP3 in Treg plasticity, stability and function in axial spondyloarthritis, proposing that Treg dysregulation may contribute to disease pathogenesis and clinical manifestations.

Strategies to induce a durable pool of antigen-specific regulatory T cells in vivo are of great interest for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Here, the authors present a dendritic cell (DC)-CD4⁺ T cell bispecific nanoparticle-based platform that delivers collagen II peptide and rapamycin and show that the formulation facilitates the spatial coupling of DCs and CD4⁺ T cells, promotes a tolerogenic microenvironment and alleviates symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in a preclinical mouse model.

RORγt⁺ antigen-presenting cells (APC) are playing a role in the generation of oral tolerance via their interaction with regulatory T cells recognising dietary and commensal bacterial antigens. Here authors show that a cis transcriptional regulatory element is responsible for RORγt specifically in APCs through interaction with RUNX3 and formation of chromatin loops, which determines a transcriptional program that distinguishes these oral tolerance mediating APCs from RORγt⁺ T cells.

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) and checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-TIGIT have been used individually as tumour therapies. Here the authors fuse IL-2 and anti-TIGIT in a combined therapeutic and show that this promotes Treg cell fragility in the tumour environment which in turn promotes neutrophil function to enhance CD8 T cell anti-tumour function in mouse models.

Adoptive regulatory T cell (Treg) therapy holds promise for the treatment of a range of immunopathological conditions. Here the authors explore the HLA engineering of allogenic Treg products that avoid T cell and NK cell attack and maintain immunomodulatory function in a human skin-xenograft model.

Regulatory T cell therapy has shown some success therapeutically in the context of autoimmunity and transplantation. Here the authors explore the impact of IL-6, TGF-β and IL-2 on pathogenic Th17 cell generation post regulatory T cell therapy, and show therapeutic blockade of IL-6/STAT3 can reduce their generation in murine models of inflammatory disease.

Treatment with low-dose IL-2 increases regulatory T cell numbers and reduces arterial inflammation in patients with an acute coronary syndrome and residual systemic inflammation compared with placebo, according to findings from the IVORY trial.

Immune dysfunction and aberrant metabolic remodeling are hallmarks of critical illness including sepsis. Metabolic adaptation of CD4⁺ T cells is now shown to contribute to immunosuppression and poor clinical outcomes in critical illness.

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine honored a scientific breakthrough with hidden cardiovascular potential: regulatory T cells and peripheral immune tolerance. These mechanisms provide a paradigm shift for understanding and treating cardiovascular disease, dampening inflammation without compromising immunity, and offering safer and more effective therapies.

Early-life differentiation of self-reactive thymocytes into the regulatory T (T_reg) cell lineage is crucial for lifelong immune tolerance to self. Reduced ZAP70 expression is now revealed as a key thymocyte-intrinsic selector of the neonatal T_reg cell repertoire.

A study in Science Immunology reports that regulatory T cells in the skin modulate neuronal tone directly through their production of the opioid enkephalin.