Schrodinger's T Cells: Molecular Insights Into Stemness and Exhaustion.

ABSTRACT: T cell stemness and exhaustion coexist as two key contrasting phenomena during chronic antigen stimulation, such as infection, transplant, cancer, and autoimmunity. T cell exhaustion refers to the progressive loss of effector function caused by chronic antigen exposure. Exhausted T (T_EX) cells highly express multiple inhibitory receptors and exhibit severe defects in cell proliferation and cytokine production. The term T cell stemness describes the stem cell-like behaviors of T cells, including self-renewal, multipotency, and functional persistence. It is well accepted that naïve and some memory T cell subsets have stem cell-like properties. When investigating the exhaustive differentiation of T cells in chronic infection and cancer, recent studies highlighted the stemness of "p

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8427607 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature