AUTHOR=Amini Leila , Greig Jenny , Schmueck-Henneresse Michael , Volk Hans-Dieter , Bézie Séverine , Reinke Petra , Guillonneau Carole , Wagner Dimitrios L. , Anegon Ignacio TITLE=Super-Treg: Toward a New Era of Adoptive Treg Therapy Enabled by Genetic Modifications JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=11 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.611638 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2020.611638 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

Regulatory Tcells (Treg) are essential components of peripheral immune homeostasis. Adoptive Treg cell therapy has shown efficacy in a variety of immune-mediated diseases in preclinical studies and is now moving from phase I/IIa to larger phase II studies aiming to demonstrate efficacy. However, hurdles such as in vivo stability and efficacy remain to be addressed. Nevertheless, preclinical models have shown that Treg function and specificity can be increased by pharmacological substances or gene modifications, and even that conventional T cells can be converted to Treg potentially providing new sources of Treg and facilitating Treg cell therapy. The exponential growth in genetic engineering techniques and their application to T cells coupled to a large body of knowledge on Treg open numerous opportunities to generate Treg with “superpowers”. This review summarizes the genetic engineering techniques available and their applications for the next-generation of Super-Treg with increased function, stability, redirected specificity and survival.