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An immune response with a sweet tooth

A previously unknown pathway that enables mammalian cells to recognize infection and trigger an immune response requires a kinase enzyme in the host cell to bind a sugar molecule produced by infecting bacteria.
  1. John-Demian Sauer

    1. John-Demian Sauer is in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.

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Bacterial infections are a major cause of disease and death worldwide. The innate branch of the mammalian immune system, which recognizes and reacts to general characteristics of pathogenic organisms, has a key protective role. Writing in Nature, Zhou et al.1 describe a mechanism by which the innate immune system is activated in response to bacterial sugar molecules. This finding broadens our understanding of the types of molecule that can be recognized as hallmarks of bacterial infection and the host proteins that can recognize such molecules.

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Nature 561, 37-38 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05854-y

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