Therapeutic potential of atorvastatin-modified dendritic cells in experimental autoimmune neuritis by decreased Th1/Th17 cytokines and up-regulated T regulatory cells and NKR-P1+ cells

•DCs treated with atorvastatin (statin-DCs) can be induced into tolerogenic DCs.•Administration of statin-DCs ameliorate the clinical symptoms in EAN.•Statin-DCs induce both central and peripheral immune tolerance in EAN.

Statins have pleiotropic effects which include anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. In the present study, dendritic cells treated with atorvastatin (statin-DCs) could be induced into tolerogenic DCs. Administration of these tolerogenic DCs ameliorated clinical symptoms in experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN), which was associated with reduced number of inflammatory cells in sciatic nerves, inhibited CD4+ T cells proliferation, down-regulated expression of co-stimulatory molecules (CD80 and CD86) and MHC class II, decreased levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-17A, increased number of NKR-P1+ cells (including NK and NKT cells), up-regulated number of Treg cells in lymph node MNC as well as increased Foxp3 expression in the thymus. These data indicated that statin-DCs could develop as a new therapeutic strategy to GBS in the future.