FOXP3 ensembles in T cell regulation

Greene博士は1972年にManitoba大学医学部を卒業後, 同大学で免疫学の研究によりPh.D. の学位を取得されました。その後Harvard 大学医学部で制御性T細胞と免疫調節の先駆的な研究をし、研究領域に多大なインパクトを与えました。今回は、制御性T細胞に関する最新のお話をして頂きます。

Greene's laboratory has been concerned with identifying the basic principles and biochemistry of peripheral unresponsiveness for more than 30 years. At least three different mechanisms, clonal deletion, clonal anergy and active suppression represent processes by which the immune system mediates self-tolerance. During his talk he will present their current understanding on how FOXP3 functions in vivo as a transcriptional regulator by assembling a multisubunit complex involved in histone modification as well as chromatin remodeling.

Their recent studies have identified dynamic protein ensembles containing FOXP3 that provide insight into the molecular complexity of suppressor T cell activities. They have solved some of the issues associated with how FOXP3 forms an ensemble of HDAC and HAT and how this complex mediates repression of certain genes. These studies revealed a stoichiometric relationship between the HDAC and HAT proteins and suppression and point to a pharmaceutical strategy to induce or down regulate suppression.