Frontiers in Immunology (Jul 2024)

Research progress of T cell autophagy in autoimmune diseases

  • Xingxing Zhao,
  • Dan Ma,
  • Baoqi Yang,
  • Yajing Wang,
  • Liyun Zhang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1425443
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15

Abstract

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T cells, as a major lymphocyte population involved in the adaptive immune response, play an important immunomodulatory role in the early stages of autoimmune diseases. Autophagy is a cellular catabolism mediated by lysosomes. Autophagy maintains cell homeostasis by recycling degraded cytoplasmic components and damaged organelles. Autophagy has a protective effect on cells and plays an important role in regulating T cell development, activation, proliferation and differentiation. Autophagy mediates the participation of T cells in the acquired immune response and plays a key role in antigen processing as well as in the maintenance of T cell homeostasis. In autoimmune diseases, dysregulated autophagy of T cells largely influences the pathological changes. Therefore, it is of great significance to study how T cells play a role in the immune mechanism of autoimmune diseases through autophagy pathway to guide the clinical treatment of diseases.

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