TIGIT Marks Exhausted T Cells and Serves As a Target for Immune Restoration in Patients with Chronic HBV Infection

Overview

Journal Am J Transl Res

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2022 Mar 11

PMID 35273697

Authors

Yan-Yan Wei

Jing Fan

Meng-Xuan Shan

Dan-Dan Yin

Li-Li Wang

Wei Ye

Wei Zhao

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Chronic HBV infection is a serious worldwide health problem that mainly causes liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Few studies have explored how T cell exhaustion helps HBV avoid immune system attack and how to reverse that exhaustion. Recently, T cell immunoglobulin and immune receptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif (ITIM) domain (TIGIT) have been identified as coinhibitory receptors, similar to PD-1. This study explores the expression of TIGIT and the T cell function changes in patients with chronic HBV infection.

Results: In this study, we found that the expression of TIGIT on T cells increased significantly in patients with chronic HBV infection. High expression of TIGIT on T cells is associated with functional exhaustion. Importantly, this study demonstrates that blocking TIGIT can reverse T cell exhaustion and restore function in patients with chronic HBV infection.

Conclusions: HBV induces T cell exhaustion by up-regulating the expression of TIGIT. Blocking the TIGIT/PVR signaling pathway can reverse T cell exhaustion, so this discovery provides an immunotherapy target to battle chronic HBV infection.

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