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. 2021 Mar 30;9(4):351. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9040351

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© 2021 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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HCMV-infected tumour cells secrete viral cytokines (cIL-10 and c-TGF-β) that create an immunosuppressive environment (highlighted red zone) around the developing tumour thereby promoting tumour progression. cIL-10 and c-TGF-β also induce CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ Tregs that produce similar cytokines (IL-10 and TGF-β) further augmenting the immunosuppressive state by inhibiting cytotoxic CD8⁺ T lymphocyte (CTL) and natural killer (NK) cell effector responses. HCMV also interferes with the differentiation of monocytes into mature dendritic cells (DCs) that leads to the establishment of immature DCs with reduced MHC-class II antigen presentation and subsequently less CD4⁺ T cell proliferation and reduced Th1 help needed for enhanced CTL activation. Figure created with BioRender.com.