Treg cell-based therapies: challenges and perspectives

Cellular therapies using regulatory T (Treg) cells are currently undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease. In this Review, we discuss the biology of Treg cells and describe new efforts in Treg cell engineering to enhance specificity, stability, functional activity and delivery. Finally, we envision that the success of Treg cell therapy in autoimmunity and transplantation will encourage the clinical use of adoptive Treg cell therapy for non-immune diseases, such as neurological disorders and tissue repair. Therapies based on adoptive cellular transfer of regulatory T (Treg) cells are currently undergoing clinical trials for autoimmune diseases, graft-versus-host disease and the prevention of transplant rejection. This Review provides an overview of Treg cell biology and discusses the latest approaches to enhance Treg cells for therapeutic purposes.