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MAIT cells found to be dysfunctional in patients with alcoholic liver disease

VIENNA — Antonio Riva, PhD, from the Institute of Hepatology, Foundation for Liver Research, London, United Kingdom, discusses his study on assessing the role of Mucosal-associated invariant T-cells, or MAIT cells, in alcoholic liver disease at the 2015 International Liver Congress.

Riva and colleagues examined peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis, compensated alcohol-related cirrhosis and healthy controls.

MAIT cells were found to be low in patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis (P = .005) and dramatically lower in acute alcoholic hepatitis (P < .001) compared with the healthy controls. The MAIT cells from the patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis and alcohol-related cirrhosis were hyper expressed immunoinhibitory receptors compared with the healthy controls (P < .03)

“The main message of the work is that MAIT cells, these new, novel subset of T-cells that are really relevant for antibacterial responses are dysfunctional in patients with alcoholic liver disease,” Riva said. “We could potentially also suggest that MAIT cells may, in the future, become a new immunotherapy target for alcoholic liver disease.” – by Melinda Stevens