With the discovery that the highly effective anti-CD20 antibody therapies developed to deplete CD20+ B cells deplete CD20+ T cells equally well, a great interest in the biological properties of CD20+ T cells has emerged. In this study we show that CD20+ T cells have a proinflammatory Th1/Tc1 phenotype with a high proliferative capacity to CNS antigens. We also found that the percentage of CD20+ T cells is increased in the blood of patients with multiple sclerosis and are enriched in the CSF of the patients. Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between CD20+ T cells in the CSF and multiple sclerosis disease severity and see that regulation of CD20+ T cells likely contributes to the positive treatment effect of the multiple sclerosis treatment alemtuzumab. These data represent an important contribution to the understanding of the nature of CD20+ T cells and strongly suggests a role of CD20+ T cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis.
CITATION STYLE
Von Essen, M. R., Ammitzbøll, C., Hansen, R. H., Petersen, E. R. S., McWilliam, O., Marquart, H. V., … Sellebjerg, F. (2019). Proinflammatory CD20+ T cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. Brain, 142(1), 120–132. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awy301
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.