Effect of selected non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on activation-induced CD25 expression on murine CD4+ and CD8+ T cells: An in vitro study

Abstract

The main aim of this study has been to determine the effect of selected non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaIDs) – depending on their selectivity to cyclooxygenase (coX) 1 and 2 – on the activation-induced cD25 expression on cD4+ and cD8+ T cells. Lymphocytes obtained from lymph nodes of mice were treated with acetylsalicylic acid (asa; a preferential coX-1 inhibitor), ketoprofen (keT; a non-selective coX inhibitor) and robenacoxib (rob; a selective coX-2 inhibitor) in concentrations reflecting their plasma levels achieved in vivo at therapeutic doses and in ten-fold lower concentrations. The cells were activated with concanavalin a. In contrast to keT and rob, asa had no effect on the activation-induced cD25 expression on cD4+ and cD8+ T cells, nor did it affect the counts of cD4+ and cD8+ activated effector (aTeff) and resting (Trest) T cells. both keT and rob caused a depletion of cD8+ aTeff cells, and additionally keT induced a loss of cD8+ Trest cells. moreover, rob, but not the other drugs, reduced the activation-induced cD25 expression on cD4+ T cells. This suggests that non-selective coX inhibitors and selective coX-2 inhibitors may weaken the effector T cell response by producing a negative effect on the count of aTeff cells. Furthermore, the results seem to imply that asa and keT have certain potential to induce Foxp3 expression in cD25+cD8+ and cD25+cD4+ T cells, respectively. However, all the observed changes were very weakly manifested and therefore it is not certain whether they have clinical importance, despite the statistical significance determined.