EVALUATION AND TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH PROGRESSIVE IMMUNOSUPPRESSION

摘要

A soluble immunosuppressive factor present in serum derived from tumor-beari ng mammals, is associated with changes in TCR protein subunit levels, T lymphocyte signal transduction pathway protein s. These changes provide a method of determining the level of immunosuppression in a mammal by determining the level of expression of at least one selected TCR subunit protein, a protein in the T lymphocyte signal transduction pathway, or of the NF-KB/r el family and comparing the level and pattern to chat found in non-immunosuppressed individuals: The method is useful to identify patients having T lymphocytes capable of acti- vation for immunotherapy and for identifying agents which cause or reverse immunosuppression. An isolated immunosuppres- sive factor associated with the level of expression of the proteins is usefu l for suppressing the immune response, for example, in organ transplantation.