Volume 11 Issue 12, December 2010

Diseases preventable by underused vaccines cause the death of approximately 3 million children per year. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) was launched 10 years ago to tackle this appalling situation.

Jim Gowans opened a new era of immunology by combining physiological in vivo studies with prospective enrichment of small lymphocytes, validating the clonal selection theory, discovering lymphocyte homing and recirculation, and training others to follow.

Regulatory T cells come in many different forms depending on their mode of action or developmental origin. Data now show that interleukin 35, an immunomodulatory cytokine secreted by regulatory T cells, and interleukin 10 induce so-called 'iT_R35 cells', which may have an important role in the phenomenon of infectious tolerance.

Human CD4⁺ T cells that produce interleukin 22 are an essential component of skin defense and repair. New evidence shows that these T cells recognize CD1a-lipid complexes on Langerhans cells.

Natural killer cells have emerged as key components of innate immunity with critical antimicrobial functions. New work showing that they can also be accessed by vaccination to deliver antigen-specific memory responses and protect against subsequent viral infections challenges the traditional distinctions made between innate and adaptive immunity.

The kinase Zap70 transmits downstream signals after TCR ligation. Weiss and colleagues describe a conditional Zap70 catalytic mutant that demonstrates kinase-independent functions in regulatory T cells.

IL-35 is an immunomodulatory cytokine secreted by regulatory T cells. Vignali and colleagues demonstrate that IL-35 also mediates the induction of a unique regulatory population that may underpin infectious tolerance.

The functions of the human T cell repertoires that recognize different CD1 molecules remain unknown. Moody and co-workers show that many CD1a-autoreactive T cells home to skin, where they produce IL-22.

Plasma cells are antibody-producing factories. McHeyzer-Williams and colleagues report that they can also act in a negative feedback loop to dampen the recruitment and activity of antigen-specific follicular helper T cells.

The heterodimeric cytokine IL-27 consists of the subunits p28 and EBI3. Hunter and colleagues demonstrate that p28 acting alone can inhibit the signaling of many cytokines by interfering with the common receptor gp130.

NK cells confer innate immune functions. Von Andrian and colleagues show that hepatic NK cells bearing CXCR6 receptors confer antigen-specific NK cell memory that is protective against various viruses.

Pyroptosis is a form of proinflammatory cell suicide whose physiological importance is unclear. Aderem and colleagues show that pyroptosis can be integral to protection against bacterial infection.