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Immunology

Professional secrets

Nature volume 425, pages 351–352 (2003)Cite this article

Looking inside the compartments of certain immune cells — professional antigen-presenting cells — has revealed how the immune system can trigger a cell-killing response to extracellular pathogens.

Our immune system provides effective protection against most pathogens. It can mount a highly specific 'adaptive' response that distinguishes between different sorts of pathogen and activates the appropriate mechanisms to eliminate them. Writing in this issue, Amigorena and colleagues1 and Desjardins and colleagues2 suggest how an adaptive immune response typically reserved for pathogens that replicate inside immune cells can also be generated against pathogens that exist outside these cells.

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Figure 1: Professional antigen-presenting cells process intracellular and extracellular pathogens differently.

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  1. Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, 06536, Conneticut, USA

    Craig R. Roy

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  1. Craig R. Roy
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Roy, C. Professional secrets. Nature 425, 351–352 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/425351a

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