During Multiple Sclerosis (MS), autoreactive cells are falsely activated and attack the body. These responses are normally controlled by a population of suppressor cells, the regulatory lymphocytes. In MS patients those regulatory cells are often defective. In order to treat MS, it is therefore important to restore their suppressive function. We propose to test the role of a receptor that is strongly expressed on regulatory lymphocytes. Based on our data, we believe that we can modulate this receptor to reduce the activation of autoreactive cells and, at the same time, increase the function of regulatory lymphocytes, which will help to develop new strategies for MS treatment.

We examine the effect of the T-cell costimulatory molecule CD27 on different immune-cell subsets to explore the possibility to reduce autoimmunity and, at the same time, restore regulatory mechanisms.