A News and Views article by Tyler J. Curiel, M.D., M.P.H., was published in the journal Nature Medicine.
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In March, the prestigious journal Nature Medicine published a News and Views article written by Tyler J. Curiel, M.D., M.P.H. The title is “Regulatory T cell development: is Foxp3 the decider?”

Dr. Curiel holds the Dielmann Chair in Oncology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, is scientific director of the Cancer Therapy & Research Center, and is director of the San Antonio Cancer Institute.

“I evaluated four recent studies that give us incredible insights into the development of regulatory T cells, insights that in the long run will allow the rational design of agents to modulate their activity,” Dr. Curiel said.

Dr. Curiel’s research group, in particular Michael J. Brumlick, Ph.D., assistant professor, and Benjamin Daniel, Ph.D., postdoctoral student, both in the department of medicine, section of hematology and medical oncology, are developing new agents to modulate this activity. “We hope to have them in human trials within two years,” Dr. Curiel said.

The article refers to regulatory T cells as “Tregs.” Dr. Curiel notes the distinction between natural Tregs, which operate under normal conditions in the body, and adaptive Tregs, which arise during inflammatory processes including cancer.

“Reduced Treg function contributes to autoimmune diseases including diabetes, whereas increased function can aggravate tumor and pathogen immunopathology,” Dr. Curiel stated.

Understanding Tregs and how to control their function is thus going to have very broad, practical applications to many areas of medicine for that reason, he said in an interview.

A News and Views article by Tyler J. Curiel, M.D., M.P.H., was published in the journal Nature Medicine.