Conversely, immunosuppressive therapy may downregulate the expression of NOD2 in CD8+ T, monocytes, mDCs, and pDCs in SLE which subsequently reduce regulatory cytokine IL-10, allowing for an aberrant inflammatory response contributing towards the regulation of immunopathological mechanisms of SLE, at the expense of increasing risk of bacterial infection [165]. Here, NOD2 is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.