The role of adenosinergic pathway in human autoimmune diseases

Abstract

Autoimmune diseases are characterized by the abnormal immune response against self-tissue, which are caused by the failure of nature immune homeostasis. Nature immune homeostasis represents the normal state of appropriate immune response to nonself-antigen and unresponsiveness to self-antigens. In normal situation, immune homeostasis is regulated by immunosuppressive signal and immunostimulating signal together. Accumulating data have demonstrated that the adenosinergic pathway played key roles in immune suppression and shield body from an excessive inflammatory response. The deficiency of adenosinergic pathway results in the imbalance between the pro- and anti-inflammatory activities. Thus, researchers pay much attention to the role of adenosinergic pathway in autoimmune diseases development. To date, accumulating data have suggested an important role of adenosinergic pathway-related molecules (i.e., CD39, CD73, ADA, adenosine receptors, etc.) in many types of human autoimmune diseases. More importantly, these findings have presented potential value of adenosinergic pathway analysis to be used for autoimmune diseases diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. In this review, we will provide a comprehensive description of the role of adenosinergic pathway in human autoimmune diseases.

Keywords: Adenosine receptor; Adenosinergic pathway; Autoimmune diseases; Immunosuppression.

Fig. 1

Adenosine pathway mediates immune suppression. A scheme illustrates the generation of adenosine and the adenosine receptor signaling pathway that mediates immune suppression. Adenosine is generated from degradation of ATP by CD39 & CD73. The adenosine pathway mediates the immune suppression by regulating the function of immune cells, such as T cells, dendritic cells and macrophages