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The age-related involution of the thymus is associated with impaired cellular immunity and it is possible that restoring the thymopoietic activity of the thymus could have medical benefits. In this Opinion article, the authors discuss the development, involution and regeneration of the thymus and highlight the major gaps that still remain in our understanding of these processes.
In this Opinion article, the authors provide an overview of the recent work that has been carried out investigating broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies and their thoughts on the future prospects of the antibody-based prevention of HIV-1 infection.
In this Opinion, the authors provide their perspective on how the type 2 immune response may have evolved and how it functions to mediate both resistance and tolerance to tissue-destructive helminths. They propose that the damage induced during helminth migration and the subsequent need for tissue repair have been major factors in driving the evolution of the type 2 response.
If an exogenous antigen such as gluten can drive the autoimmune features of coeliac disease, such as the production of autoantibodies and the destruction of a specific tissue type, should we be looking more closely at the possibility that other autoimmune diseases are driven by exogenous, not self, antigens?
In this Opinion article, the authors present a model of the barrier systems that control immune cell access to immune-privileged sites. They suggest that immune cell trafficking through 'true' endothelial barriers in the parenchyma results in destructive inflammation, whereas 'educational' epithelial gates allow for selective trafficking to facilitate immunosurveillance of these sites.
Lynda Stuart and colleagues discuss the ability of animals to sense perturbations in host cells caused by pathogen effectors. On the basis of recent mechanistic evidence, they suggest that such effector-triggered immunity might be as widespread in animals as in plants.
The role of natural killer (NK) cells in both immunity to infection and reproductive success is postulated to have placed competing demands on the evolution of NK cell receptors and their MHC class I ligands during the migration of humans out of Africa.
