Volume 11 Issue 12, December 2011

Three recent studies reveal different levels of control of skin inflammation.

A non-canonical inflammasome engages caspase 11, and this caspase (not caspase 1) promotes lethal septic shock.

Vitamin D is necessary for the IFNγ-induced antimicrobial response toM. tuberculosis.

Both the intestinal microbiota and self-antigen recognition drive autoimmune responses.

Virus-infected lymph node macrophages are 'ignored' by naive T cells to ensure optimal T cell priming on infected DCs.

IL-17C promotes innate epithelial cell responses and T_H17 cell functions.

Platelets associate with Gram-positive bacteria to promote targeting to DCs.

AHR ligands derived from cruciferous vegetables promote intestinal immune function.

Infection, tissue injury and alterations in the composition of the microbiota have been implicated in the initiation of autoimmune diseases. In this Review article, Kingston Mills discusses how Toll-like receptor (TLR) signalling downstream of all these events can regulate the function of autoreactive T cells both directly and indirectly (through the activation of innate immune cells), and comments on the therapeutic implications of TLR targeting.

This article provides a broad, timely review of our current understanding of MHC class I and class II antigen presentation and presents a survey of 43 experts in the field on the most important outstanding issues.

This Review discusses how invertebrate and vertebrate members of the PGRP family have developed an amazing variety of mechanisms to coordinate the host response to mutualistic, commensal and parasitic microorganisms.

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4) has long been known to have an important regulatory role in the immune system; however, its mechanisms of action have been the subject of considerable debate. This article reviews the strengths and limitations of the cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic models that have been proposed to explain the function of CTLA4.

The childhood vaccination campaigns of the twentieth century represent one of the great success stories of modern medicine. But are we yet to realize the full potential of vaccines? This article discusses the medical needs of the twenty-first century society and proposes that new vaccines will play a major part in addressing these needs.

Using global profiling of gene and protein expression to derive models of regulatory networks in mammals poses many challenges. Here, the authors describe a systematic functional strategy to tackle these issues with a focus on its use in the immune system.