Exploring the therapeutic potential of regulatory T cell in rheumatoid arthritis: Insights into subsets, markers, and signaling pathways

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a complex autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic disease characterized by an imbalance between immunological reactivity and immune tolerance. Regulatory T cells (Tregs), which play a crucial role in controlling ongoing autoimmunity and maintaining peripheral tolerance, have shown great potential for the treatment of autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases such as RA. This review aims to provide an updated summary of the latest insights into Treg-targeting techniques in RA. We focus on current therapeutic strategies for targeting Tregs based on discussing their subsets, surface markers, suppressive function, and signaling pathways in RA. •Tregs can be split into tTregs, pTregs and iTregs, which suppress autoimmunity.•FoxP3 is considered to be the most specific marker of Tregs at present.•Tregs exert functions by cell-cell contact, cytokine meditation, markers, and TFs.•Upstream signaling pathways of Tregs trigger rheumatoid arthritis.•Treg targeted, based, and related therapies show potent in rheumatoid arthritis.