Regulation of fate determination of memory T cells by microRNAs
Memory T cells play an important role in protection against cancer and pathogens. Central to memory T cells is their lineage differentiation and fate determination. Over two years ago we set to study whether fate determination in central memory T cells was under the regulation of microRNAs. We found that fate determination is under the regulation of few selected microRNAs, some of which apparently regulate phenotype and self-renewal. The evidence was gathered by extensive microRNA array analysis supported by qPCR, anti/pre microRNA, and flow cytometry studies. Our data add to the growing body of reports showing that like other cell types (stem cells and cancer cells to name a few) memory T cells undergo fate determination under the cooperative and instructive role of microRNAs. To this one may add that our findings support the idea that central memory T cells may be set on a cell intrinsic program before reaching a full blown effector stage. Our findings corroborate the proposal on a possible analogy between memory T cells and stem cells. In addition to these findings we also identified a new gene, which transcribed specifically in central memory T cells, KChip((K+ channel-interacting protein).1. This gene has never been associated with memory T cell function before. It may represent a new marker of fate determination for memory T cells. This study was published in PLoS ONE (5: e11243, 2010).
Also in 2010 Dr. Zanetti published the first book on “Memory T Cells” (Landes Bioscience Publisher; Austin (TX). 2010. (ISBN: 978-1-4419-6450-2)