BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

A gut feeling for CD39

October 15, 2009 7:00 AM UTC

Researchers have reported that enhancing CD39 activity in the gut could trigger a Treg-mediated immunosuppressive response to help treat inflammatory bowel disease.1 The researchers are now developing a soluble form of CD39 that they hope could become an infusible therapeutic to treat colitis and Crohn's disease.

Multiple signaling pathways underlie the immunosuppressive function of Tregs. One of those pathways involves the Treg-mediated generation of extracellular adenosine, which binds its receptor on the surface of proinflammatory T cells and decreases their development and proliferation (see Figure 1, "Targeting CD39 in inflammatory bowel disease").2...