Regulated on Activation, Normal T Cell Expressed and Secreted Drives the Resolution of Allergic Asthma

RANTES has been implicated in allergic asthma as well as in T cell-dependent clearance of infection. RANTES receptor is a G-protein coupled, seven-transmembrane receptor which comprises CCR1, CCR3 and CCR5. Infections with respiratory viruses cause induction of RANTES by epithelial cells. Here, we studied the role of RANTES in PBMC from several cohorts of children with and without asthma recruited within the European study Predicta and extended this study to the airways of adults with and without asthma recruited in the Asthma BRIDGE study in the USA. We further translated these studies to murine models of asthma induced by house dust mite (HDM) in wild type RANTES and CCR5 deficient mice. Here we show an unpredicted therapeutic role of RANTES in the resolution of allergen induced asthma by orchestrating the transition from effector GATA-3+ CD4+ T cells and inflammatory eosinophils into immunoregulatory type T cells and resident eosinophils.