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Infections in Patients With Lupus

What contributes to compromised ability to fight?

Publish date:: September 14, 2015

A selective loss of SLAMF4+ CD8+ T cells contributes to the compromised ability of T cells in patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) to fight against infections.

In a recent study, expression was determined by Q-PCR and flow cytometry. T cells were activated and degranulation was monitored. Researchers observed that SLE patients had significantly fewer SLAMF4+ CD8+ T cells, compared with healthy individuals. They have decreased cytotoxic capacity and proliferative responses to viral peptides.

The loss of memory T cells in SLE patients, the authors noted, is linked to the fact that they lose CD8 expression and become double negative T cells.

Citation: Kis-Toth K, Comte D, Karampetsou M, et al.. The selective loss of SLAMF4+ CD8+ T cells contributes to the decreased cytotoxic cell activity in systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015; August 28 ,2015. DOI: 10.1002/art.39410

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