Gene expression profiles of effector T cells induced by mTOR inhibition

To further develop our gene expression approach to treatment of autoimmunity, we have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes differentially expressed upon immunosuppressor treatment responsible for inhibition of T cell effector functions. Human CD4+CD25- cells from healthy donors were pretreated or not with rapamycin and stimulated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 for 12h. mTOR (Mammalian Target of Rapamycin) inhibition-induced gene expression was evaluated in human effector T cells after 1 hour rapamycin pretreatment and compared to vehicle-pretreated cells. Three independent experiments were performed for each of the two different experimental conditions using different donors for each experiment.