Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 107, Issue 24, Pages 10967-10971Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1005256107
Keywords
apoptosis; immunity; memory; transplantation
Categories
Funding
- National Health & Medical Research Council
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
- Diabetes Australia
- Rebecca Cooper Foundation
- Victorian State Government
- Leukemia Lymphoma Society
- Cancer Council of Victoria
- Victorian Cancer Agency
- Olle Engkvist Byggmastare Foundation
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Death by apoptosis shapes tissue homeostasis. Apoptotic mechanisms are so universal that harnessing them for tailored immune intervention would seem challenging; however, the range and different expression levels of pro-and anti-apoptotic molecules among tissues offer hope that targeting only a subset of such molecules may be therapeutically useful. We examined the effects of the drug ABT-737, a mimetic of the killer BH3 domain of the Bcl-2 family of proteins that induces apoptosis by antagonizing Bcl-2, Bcl-X(L), and Bcl-W (but not Mcl-1 and A1), on the mouse immune system. Treatment with ABT-737 reduced the numbers of selected lymphocyte and dendritic cell subpopulations, most markedly in lymph nodes. It inhibited the persistence of memory B cells, the establishment of newly arising bone marrow plasma cells, and the induction of a cytotoxic T cell response. Preexisting plasma cells and germinal centers were unaffected. Notably, ABT-737 was sufficiently immunomodulatory to allow long-term survival of pancreatic allografts, reversing established diabetes in this model. These results provide an insight into the selective mechanisms of immune cell survival and how this selectivity avails a different strategy for immune modulation.
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